A Regimental Affair - Tapa dura

- Captain Matthew Hervey has faced many tests both on and off the battlefield, but when he returns to his beloved Sixth Light Dragoons he must address a new challenge from a totally unexpected quarter. It is the spring of 1817, and Matthew Hervey is home from India to rejoin his regiment, and to marry, at last, Henrietta. England is not the place he knew, however. The clamour for parliamentary and economic reform is bringing the country close to revolution. Every day the newspapers report conspiracies, violent assemblies, machine-breaking, arson and murder. There is no professional constabulary, and the onerous task of policing falls increasingly to the army - especially the cavalry. In the Sixth Light Dragoons, too, things are not as they were. There is a new commanding officer - rich, vain, arrogant, cruel; and with a dark secret. His dislike of Hervey is immediate and intense. Yet Matthew Hervey must somehow earn this man's recommendation for promotion, or else he will have to retire on half-pay. Hervey faces a year of trials - in his marriage, his loyalty to his men, his professional skill. The mistakes begin to tell, and when the regiment is sent urgently to Canada where,

Allan Mallinson was a serving cavalry officer. He is also the author of Light Dragoons, a history of four regiments of British Cavalry, one of which he commanded, and a regular reviewer for The Times, the Spectator and the Literary Review. His previous novels all feature Matthew Hervey and are available in Bantam Paperback. The Sabre's Edge, Rumours of War and An Act of Courage were Sunday Times Bestsellers.