Chain of Fire

A re-examination of the siege of Khartoum and the extraordinarily bloody war fought by the British in Egypt and Sudan from 1882

In the 1880s, Khartoum had a population of around 50,000 on the left bank of the Blue Nile. Yet it was this city which would become the explosive touchstone for a conflict whose scars continue today. For Victorian Britain, North Africa was a hot-button issue as Khedive rule, Egyptian nationalism and the rise of the Mahdi created a political pressure cooker in which Prime Minister Gladstone had no intention of becoming further involved - until his emissary Charles Gordon was besieged in Khartoum. This was the height of aggressive European colonialism. Hardships were endured, injustices administered, hair-raising battles fought and civilians caught in the crossfire of imperial fury. And amongst the early British officers were famous figures who would later adopt starring roles in the trenches of the First World War, such as Egyptian Army sapper Captain Herbert Kitchener. By turns brutal and sparkling, this is an unflinching look at the lives behind the North African conflicts which rocked nineteenth-century Britain.