South African Historical Fiction
From Victorian England to the battlefields of South Africa, this is the story of one woman’s search for freedom.
In a time of rampant imperialism, feisty Judith Armstrong is determined to fight for the rights of impoverished women in a masculine world—that is until a demonstration deteriorates into a riot, bringing her into conflict with Ralph Gilchrist, a well-born officer in Her Majesty’s Dragoon Guards. Judith’s spirited approach to Women’s Rights and freedom inevitably clashes with Ralph’s decidedly conservative and typically Victorian views. Sparks fly, but despite their mutual attraction, scandal forces her to leave Britain for a mission station in the British colony of Natal.
Britain is struggling to maintain its empire in the face of the demands of a growing democracy at home and the rising powers of Germany, America and Russia abroad. These tensions are set to play out in southern Africa, where diamonds have been discovered and it has suddenly become that much more important to cement the Empire’s hold on the territory. In the fledgling colony of Natal, a power struggle between the British and the Zulu Kingdom grows, and it is here that Judith and Ralph are destined to meet again—but this time on the blood-soaked battlefields of Zululand at the fateful Battle of Isandlwana.
This then is their story … a story of young South Africa and of the clash between an aging empire and the mighty Zulu tribe. A story of adventure, glorious bravery, earth-shattering defeat and a love that could never be.
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