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DateOriginal Topic
26th June 2005Your Top Ten A.Z.W.Books.
By L.J.Knight
Iwould be very interested in your own personal favorites!. in my list i have (to spare thier blushes) excluded all authors who frequent this site,im not including my reasons why a book is in any particular order they would go on for ever,but i look forward to anybodies output. here goes..1. T.W.O.T.S. Donald Morris. 2.Battlepiece Isandhlwana, Sir Reginald Coupland. 3. Rorkes Drift,Edmund Yorke,4.An Historical Guide for Natal and Zululand 1497 to 1879, J.L.Smail. 6.Isandhlwana 1879 the sources re-examined, F.W.D.Jackson. 7.Map's and notes of the field operation's connected with the Zulu War of 1879. Stanley Evans.
DateReplies
26th June 2005L.J.Knight
8. The last Zulu King (the life and death of Cetshwayo) 9.Kingdom in crisis, John Laband. 10.Military history journal vol 4 num 4. South African Military history Society.sorry its in two parts, i appear to have ran out of space. for obvious reasons the list must only contain 10 titles ie.books,periodicals,magazines ect. regards to all..L.J.Knight
26th June 2005L.J.Knight
sorry number eight C.T.Binn's.L.J.
27th June 2005Coll
L.J. Knight

Although I haven't read most of my AZW titles, each one was chosen for different reasons -

1. The Road to Isandhlwana : Colonel Anthony Durnford in Natal and Zululand. by R.W.F. Droogleever.
2. My Chief and I. by Atherton Wylde. (Frances Colenso)
3. A Soldier's Life and Work in South Africa. by Edward Durnford. (ordered)
4. The Road to Isandlwana. by Philip Gon.
5. Zulu : Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift 22-23 January 1879. by Ian Knight.
6. Zulu Victory : The Epic of Isandlwana and the Cover-Up. by Ron Lock and Peter Quantrill.
7. The Zulu War : Then and Now. by Ian Knight and Ian Castle.
8. The Anatomy of the Zulu Army : From Shaka to Cetshwayo 1818-1879. by Ian Knight.
9. Redcoats and Zulus : Myths, Legends and Explanations of the Anglo-Zulu War 1879. by Adrian Greaves.
10. The Washing of the Spears. by Donald Morris. (of course)

Coll
27th June 2005Peter Ewart
In no particular order & off the top of my head:

Laband - Kingdom in Crisis
Laband - Chelmsford's Zululand campaign (ARS)
Knight - With his Face to the Foe
Knight - The Sun Turned Black
Knight & Castle - Then & Now
Moodie
Norris Newman
Ashe & Wyatt-Edgell
Coghill - Whom the Gods Love
The Red Book

Like Coll, all for different reasons - on another day I might choose a different ten!

Peter
27th June 2005Michael Boyle
I'd add also, in no particular order:

Hill of the Sphinx- Jackson
Kingdom and Colony at War- Laband/Thompson
The Red Soldier- Emery
A Zulu King Speaks- ed. Webb/Wright
Anglo-Zulu War The Correspondents- Laband/Knight
By Orders of the Great White Queen- Knight
The Zulu War- Barthorp

For general Victorian background:
Go to Your God Like a Soldier- Knight
Mr. Kipling's Army- Farwell

And for reference:
Mac and Shad
They Fell Like Stones- Young
England's Sons-Whybra

Michael
28th June 2005Michael Boyle
Oh yeah, The Noble 24th-Holmes.
28th June 2005Andy Lee
What happened to 'Zulu' Saul David !!!!!!!!!
28th June 2005Paul Cubbin
Without specialist medical assistance, Dr David is probably unable to retrieve it from the place where his readers have rammed it.
28th June 2005L.J.Knight
That was so obviously 13 Michael,lol. regards mate. L.J.Knight
28th June 2005Ed Coan
Good topic - for what it's worth I'd put Ian Knight's 'Brave Men's Blood' in at no.1, but I wonder whether this should split down into general histories and then books on specific aspects - okay I'm just trying to elongate the topic!

But on that basis, my five of a general nature would be:

1. The abovementioned Brave Men's Blood
2. Zulu War Then and Now - Knight & Castle
3. The Red Soldier - Emery
4. Zulu War Field Guide - Laband/Thompson
5. Washing of The Spears - Morris

Specialist nature/specific topics:

1. With His Face To The Foe - Knight
2. Invasion of Zululand - Sonia Clarke
3. When The Sun Turned Black - Knight
4. The Last Zulu King - Binns
5. Harford's Zulu War Diary - ed.Daphne Child

Any more sub-sections - books on specific personalities?

Ed
28th June 2005L.J.Knight
very interesting input,and when i said i had not put any author's in who frequent ect, it would be facinating to see what some of our more illustrous site contributos would choose. thank all.L.J.Knight
29th June 2005Sean Sweeney
I only have One;

The Zulu War: A pictorial History - M Barthorp

Do I qualify ?

(I feel like a 'no mates' poor relation)

But then with all your comment on the site,

we mere mortals have no need of books !

cheers,
Sean
29th June 2005Peter Ewart
Ed

The sub-sections or more specific topics certainly reveal our deeper interests or favourite authors.

I'm a great admirer of Jeff Guy's scholarship, and his work on the 1880s ("The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom" and "The View Across the River") are, in my opinion, superb. Add to these his work on Colenso ("The Heretic") and you have three wonderful books from one man. For the same period, Laband's "Atlas of the later Zulu Wars 1883-88" is extremely good.

Among works on Zulu history and society I'm very fond of Krige's "Social System of the Zulu", Callaway's "Religious System of the amaZulu", Fuze's "The Black People & Whence they Came" and Theo Binns' "Warrior People." The latter obviously relied to a certain extent on these former "standard works", and all of them cite Bryant and James Stuart, neither of which I've acquired yet.

Samuelson's "Long, Long Ago" is delightful and two of the works he quotes from liberally are Henrietta Robertson's "Mission Life Among the Zulu-Kafirs" (1868, ed. Anne Mackenzie) and "A Lady's Life & Travels in Zululand & the Transvaal in the Reign of Cetewayo" (Wilkinson) both of which are marvellously helpful and detailed on life and events in Zululand in the 1860s and 70s, and would probably be the last two books I'd get rid of if I ever had to flog the rest!

For detailed experience of life in Zululand all through the 19th century, we have the traders, the hunters and the missionaries to inform us. With the exception of Drummond, I can't think of many of the former who put pen to paper, but the books, letters and reports of the missionaries are limitless. Government servants such as JY Gibson have also contributed, but if one reads his account alongside Guy's, then one can see how the two sides viewed the same developments quite differently.

Peter
29th June 2005Ed Coan
Good shout Peter and thinking of Jeff Guy makes me think - what about books on the war (as opposed to Zulu society) written from a Zulu perspective, as I'm acutely aware that we see things through 'our' eyes?

Jeff Guy's 'Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom' would be in there and then 'Cetshwayo's Dutchman' (Cornelius Vijn), maybe Ian Knight's 'Great Zulu Commanders and 'Great Zulu Battles' and Mitford's 'Through the Zulu Country'?

Have also got Richard Cope's 'Ploughshare of War', but have yet to read it, so not sure if that's in this category.

I guess you could have a category on Rorke's Drift books alone...

Ed
29th June 2005L.J.Knight
Sean, but what a cracker that one is! so lavishly illustrated,for any body starting out to find more on this conflict that and T.W.O.T.S. with "Nothing remains but to fight" would soon lead to the road signposted "Anoraks this way" apon wich some of us our destined to walk for the rest of our lives.l.o.l. cheer's L.J.Knight
1st July 2005Peter Ewart
Ed

Laband's "Kingdom in Crisis" approaches the conflict from that viewpoint, as does, of course, the relevant chapters of his his "Rope of Sand", sold in the UK as "The Rise & Fall of the Zulu Nation."

Peter
2nd July 2005AMB
Lets just talk authors (Those still living):

Laband, Knight, Lock, Young & Yorke.

Thoughts anyone?

AMB
3rd July 2005AMB
Oh, & Quantril!

AMB