In 1881 Simon Fonthill is summoned by Major-General George Pomeroy Colley as rebellion spreads through the Transvaal. Fonthill knows the Boer commandos cannot safely be dismissed as disorganised farmers, but Colley is determined to restore British authority quickly. A covert diplomatic mission with Jenkins gives Fonthill a close view of the political stakes before both men are swept into the fighting that culminates on the heights of Majuba Hill.
The novel centres on the First Boer War, a short conflict in which British forces suffered a sequence of reverses at Laing’s Nek, Schuinshoogte and Majuba. Colley’s decision to occupy Majuba Hill on the night of 26–27 February 1881 ended in a decisive Boer counterattack and his death. Wilcox uses the battle to explore the danger of imperial overconfidence and the effectiveness of mobile Boer marksmanship against conventional British tactics.
