When he is eighteen he learns that his mysterious father has promised him a vast inheritance if he can accede to a suitable rank in the British Army.

Set up by a group of officers he is forced to leave the army, whereby he travels to South Africa.

Conflict is brewing between the British authorities and the Zulus, and he is quickly enlisted to fight for the army under the command of Lord Chelmsford.

Hart witnesses a massacre, and returns to London to be debriefed by the Duke of Cambridge himself.

The Observer noted that "while the story is stuffed full of period detail, it is too often buried under clunky prose",[1] whilst History Today was more favourable.