Matthew Hervey Series

It's 1814, and Napoleon is hard-pressed to defend France from a combination of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain. Nor is he the only one in a quandary. Matthew Hervey, a young British cornet, is in a rather unusual situation. As far as he knows, it's highly irregular to be arrested on a...

Fresh from Waterloo, Matthew Hervey, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, leaves the scene of his triumph to travel to India. Chintal's Hervey's destination, and his mission's to glean intelligence for the Duke, who expects to become Governor-General of India. Chintal's under threat from...

Following his best-selling title, The Nizam's daughters, this is Mallinson's third novel in the acclaimed series combining accurate historical details, breath taking battles, and an involving plot. It is 1817, and Captain Matthew Hervey has returned from his bloody battles in India to find...

1824, the Sixth Light Dragoons are still stationed in India, and the talk in the officers' mess is of war. The Burmese are increasingly challenging the Company's dominion, and skirmishes are becoming common on India's borders. A blaze looks set to flare, taking the surrounding provinces with it...

1826: Napoleon Bonaparte is dead, the Congress of Vienna's work is done, and there is peace in Europe. However, in Portugal there is the scent of civil war in the air following the death of KingJohn VI. Newly returned from India, Matthew Hervey joins a party of officers sent to make an...

Things are looking up for Major Matthew Hervey: news of a handsome legacy should allow him to purchase command of his beloved regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. He is resolved to marry, and, rather to his surprise, the object of his affections - the widow of the late Sir Ivo Lankester - has readily consented. But he hasn't reckoned with the opportunism of a fellow officer with ready cash in hand.

In 1827 Captain Sir Laughton Peto, recently engaged to Matthew Hervey's sister, Elizabeth, has just taken command of HMS Prince Rupert. But his passage to the Ionian Sea, where Admiral Codrington is assembling an Anglo-Russian-French fleet to evict the Turks from Greek waters, will not be smooth sailing. First he must exercise his crew. He has also been entrusted with the safe passage to Malta of the Admiral's youngest daughter.

1828: Matthew Hervey of the Sixth Light Dragoons has been urgently recalled to South Africa. The stability of the Cape Colony has been threatened by Xhosa tribesmen who have been making incursions across the borders. When Hervey is told by his old friend, Sir Eyre Somervile, that the Zulu warrior king, Shaka, is about to make war on neighbouring tribes, he knows that matters are perilous indeed.

January 1829: Cuts in the army mean that Matthew Hervey’s Dragoons are to be reduced to a single squadron. With his long-term plans in disarray, Hervey undertakes a six-month assignment as an observer with the Russian army. Soon Hervey and his faithful groom, Private Johnson, are sailing north to St Petersburg, and on to the Eastern Balkans, seat of the ferocious war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. For Hervey, the stakes have never been higher - or more personal.

The prime minister is resisting growing calls for parliamentary reform, provoking scenes of violent unrest. Against this inflammable backdrop, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey, recently returned from an assignment in the Balkans, takes command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. His fears that things might be dull are quickly dispelled by the business of vexatious officers and difficult choices over which NCOs to promote, not to mention the incendiarists on the doorstep of the king himself.