Call to Arms & the The Sabres Edge...

...simply fantastic... Mallinson goes from strength to strength in this, the fourth and fifth books in the series..

In a "Call to Arms" with his wife dead, killed in Canada by native Indians, Harvey has left the army and travels to Rome with his sister where he meets Shelley (as in the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley). Conversations with him cause Harvey to reconsider his abandoned army career, and he re-enlists by purchasing a commission back with his beloved 6th Light Dragoons.

Having arrived back with the regiment, and a far more enlightened Colonel, Harvey is given the job of training a new troop - but he only has weeks before they depart for India...

Once there, in order to bring them up to operational readiness as soon as possible, they are given a detached service but Harvey soon finds himself embroiled in the beginnings of the first Anglo-Burmese war in an attempt to stave off early defeat by destroying the Burmese war boats....

In "The Sabres Edge" Harvey's regiment are still in India, but with little opportunity for cavalry action in a campaign that is largely fought in the dense Burma jungle, he volunteers as an aide de camp to the office commanding the expedition.

The regiment however are soon called upon to face a different enemy, when rebellious elements elsewhere in India, taking heart at the setbacks the British army are facing in Burma, rise in open rebellion and take cover in the fortress of Bhurtpore. Once again, Harvey is at the forefront of the subsequent siege...

Excellent - Steve the wargamer gives both these nine out of ten... there has to be the option for a better book but it's difficult to see how!