Excellent account of Britain’s imperial adventures in the Sudan. Like many people, I mostly know about it from the 1966 film Khartoum, which had Charlton Heston as the doomed General Gordon. (Lots of things are named after this era in Australia – there’s a General Gordon school, Khartoum St, etc) But there were a number of other battles, many of which were won by Mahdists - indeed, they broke the British square, and ruled Sudan for over a decade.
The most exciting segments include the murder of Colonel Stewart (who had left Khartoum), the final attack on Gordon (great disasters always make exciting reading), the battle scenes. Asher is a former soldier who has spent a lot of time in the Sudan and he has a gift for describing action and locale. He also spends a bit of time sketching the characters of the leading Mahdist fighters.
Occasionally it got a bit confusing who was who – not just the Arab names, but all the officers with the surname “Stewart”. Asher seems to have particular fondness for Kitchener and gets stuck in Woseley. Kitchener’s campaign is a bit of an anti-climax in the story - it's hard to top Gordon. (It's like reading about the Texas campaign - the Alamo is such a powerful story, San Jacinta seems anti-climactic).
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