Power of the Raj: Soldier of the Queen

An historical novel continuing the career of James Sangster born into a military family in 1854. He is a gambler full of arrogance and disregard for the cultural and social norms of society.
Having destroyed his promising career as an officer in the Royal Artillery he is forced to enlist, under an assumed name, Seamus Quinn, in the 66th Regiment of Foot based in Peshawar, British India.Quinn is befriended by Horatio Horrocks, a bruiser of a man with streaks of barbarity and kindliness.
Set in the framework of the Great Game – a drive for superiority between the empires of Great Britain and Russia, the action ranges from Afghanistan to Egypt and the Sudan.The 66th Regiment of Foot were the scapegoats for the British defeat at Maiwand, the battle fought on 27th July 1880, where a force of British and Indian troops was overwhelmed by Afghan soldiers and tribesmen, a notorious Victorian military disaster. Two thousand five hundred British and Indian troops with six Royal Horse Artillery guns and six smooth bore cannons against three thousand Afghan cavalry, nine thousand infantry, six batteries of artillery totalling thirty-six cannons. Quinn and Horrocks survive the battle to become part of the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Berkshire Regiment, and are involved in the unsuccessful attempt to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum.
This is an historical adventure that clings to authenticity. The history is from contemporary sources and modern insights.