The Zulu War has held popular interest more consistently than any of the many colonial conflicts of the Victorian age, yet original accounts by participants are few and far between. All the more reason, therefore, to welcome the republication of this valuable and rare memoir. Its author, Colonel G. Hamilton-Browne - a military adventurer known as 'Maori Browne' for his role in New Zealand's Maori wars - was an officer commanding native troops in the Natal Native Contingent in 1879. He took part in Britain's march into Zulu land under Lord Chelmsford, and gives an enthralling eyewitness account of the battle of Isandlhwana - perhaps Britain's greatest and most humiliating defeat in the history of the British Empire. Browne was also one of the first people to arrive at the scene of Rorke's Drift after its tiny garrison had successfully withstood a prolonged Zulu assault. For the many Zulu War fans, this book is a must.