For over a hundred years British and Indian troops were engaged on the North-West Frontier of India, policing the tribes, mounting expeditions, and guarding against the ever-present threat from Russia. Populated mainly by Pathans, one of the fiercest warrior races on earth, the Frontier came to be k[...]
In the Sudan in 1881 an obscure son of a carpenter pronounced himself the 'Mahdi' or 'Guided One of the Prophet', the long-expected Messiah of the Islamic faith. His influence was so strong that Egypt (co-ruled by Britain and France) was plunged into war. Robert Wilkinson-Latham provides an absorbin[...]