Why has the valley of Kashmir, famed for its beauty and tranquillity, become a major flashpoint, threatening the stability of a region of great strategic importance and challenging the integrity of the Indian state? This book examines the Kashmir conflict in its historical context, from the period when the valley was an independent kingdom right up to the struggles of the present day. Located on the borders of China, Central Asia and the Sub-Continent, the insurgency in the valley has also created serious tensions between India and Pakistan. Drawing upon research in India and Pakistan, as well as historical sources, this book traces the origins of the state in the 19th century and the controversial "sale" by the British of the predominantly Muslim valley to a Hindu Maharaja in 1846. Through an exploration of the implications for Kashmir of independence in 1947, it gives a critical account of why, for Kashmir, self-determination may seem a more attractive option than affiliation to a larger multi-racial whole.
Archibald Wavells life and career makes a marvelous subject. Not only did he reach the highest rank (Field Marshal) and become an Earl and Viceroy of India but his character was complex. He joined the Black Watch in 1901. He stood out during the Great War, quickly earning the Military Cross but losing an eye. He was at Versailles in 1918 but between the Wars his career advanced with Brigade and General commands notably in Palestine where he spotted Orde Wingate. By the outbreak of war he was GOC-in-C Middle East. Early successes against the Italians turned into costly failures in Greece and Crete and Wavell lost the confidence of Churchill; their temperaments differed completely. Wavell was sent to India as C-in-C. After Pearl Harbor Wavell was made Supreme Allied Commander for the SW Pacific and bore responsibility for the humiliating loss of Singapore (he quickly recognized that it could not be held). Problems in Burma tested Churchills patience and he was removed from command to be Viceroy and Governor General of India. As civil unrest and demands for independence grew, in 1947 Prime Minister Attlee replaced Wavell with Mountbatten who oversaw Partition. Wavell died in 1950, after a life of huge achievement tempered with many reverses, most of which were not of his making.
Wavell was one of Britain's great military leaders. With extraordinary resilience, he faced triumph and disaster in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. His renowned victory in the Western desert was matched by the ignominy of the surrender at Singapore and the evacuation from Burma. Wavell's appointment as Viceroy of India was even more challenging, as he began its arduous move to independence. Yet behind such distinction lay an enigmatic man, equally celebrated for his unexpected silences as for his prolific memory and love of poetry. Drawing upon unpublished letters and diaries, together with interviews with the last surviving generation who knew him, she reveals the hopes, fears and the difficulties Wavell faced. Appointed and yet chastised by Winston Churchill, the failure of one of the most important relationships of WW2 is laid bare. From this beautifully written, well-researched book Wavell emerges as a man of tremendous sensitivity, a soldier and a statesman, for whom duty was paramount and who, despite his taciturn behaviour, inspired exceptional loyalty. In a world where the origins of today's conflicts lie in yesterday's wars, the story of Wavell's life holds a timeless fascination.
The most dangerous place in the world' - Barack Obama The borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan have become the arena for a global conflict with consequences that defy prediction. At the crossroads of Central Asia, gateway to India and the West, Afghanistan has tempted countless invaders in their quest for domination. Written by leading regional expert Victoria Schofield, Afghan Frontier traces the history of this region as a hotly contested battlefield for millennia. As the borderlands - now dubbed 'Af-Pak' - assume an increasingly crucial role in international politics, understanding the history and geopolitical significance of this region has never been more important. Afghan Frontier is a gripping portrait of the frontier territories, militant fighters and resilient tribesmen who shaped Afghanistan.
Historian Sir John Wheeler-Bennett (1902–1975) was one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary political operators. Through an ability to make important connections, he became an authority on Germany in the inter-war years and knew all the German hierarchy, including Hitler and Hindenburg. He also was one of the last people to interview Trotsky, writing an important analysis of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1917. As King George VI's official biographer, he met and interviewed all the major leaders in the post-war period, including Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, and members of the Royal Family; he also supervised young Jack Kennedy's master's thesis. With the first biography of Wheeler-Bennett Victoria Schofield has written a book tha will fascinate anyone interested in twentieth-century European history.
The Rescue Ships and the Convoys tells the history of one of the least known aspects of Second World War maritime history. Despite the threat of heavy losses of ships and lives, no hospital ships, which had to be lit, could accompany the convoys as they would betray a convoy’s position. The solution was to create a fleet of 30 small Merchant Navy vessels of about 1,500 gross tons, mostly from coastal trade. These ‘Rescue Ships’, commanded and manned by Merchant Navy personnel, carried medical teams, and life-saving equipment including operating theaters, hospital beds, ‘Carley’ floats, and hoists. Undeterred either by either enemy action or atrocious weather conditions, these vessels accompanied close to 800 convoys and saved 4,194 lives from ships sunk in the North Atlantic and with the Arctic convoys. During their service, seven Rescue Ships were lost. This is a story packed with suspense, danger, achievement and tragedy. As the author, Vice Admiral Schofield, who was closely involved in the establishment of the fleet, writes, it is a record ‘of great humanitarian endeavour, of superb acts of courage, of a display of seamanship of the highest order, of a devotion to duty by medical officers under the most arduous conditions imaginable, of great deeds by men of the Merchant Navy in little ships on voyages they were never designed to undertake.’
As the oldest of the Highland Regiments, The Black Watch has an enviable roster of Battle Honors and a mystique born of repeated service on behalf of King, Queen and country. On the strength of her acclaimed biography of Field Marshal Earl Wavell, the regimental trustees commissioned Victoria Schofield to write this, the first volume of her magisterial history of The Black Watch, and have fully cooperated with her as she traces the story of the Regiment from its early 18th-century beginnings through to the eve of the South African War at the end of the 19th-century. Originating as companies of highland men raised to keep a watch over the Highlands of Scotland, they were formed into a regiment in 1739. Its soldiers would go on to fight with extraordinary bravery and elan in almost every major engagement fought by the British Army during this period, from the American War of Independence, the Peninsular Wars, Waterloo, the Crimea, Indian Mutiny to Egypt and the Sudan. Drawing on diaries, letters and memoirs, Victoria Schofield skillfully weaves the multiple strands of this story into an epic narrative of a valiant body of officers and men over one-and-a-half centuries. In her sure hands, the story of The Black Watch is no arid recitation of campaigns, dates and battle honors, but is instead a rich and compelling record of the soldier's experience under fire and on campaign. It is also a celebration of the deeds of a regiment that has played a unique role in British history and a vivid insight into the lives of the many remarkable figures who have marched and fought so proudly under its Colors. It is supported by more than 170 pages of appendices, bibliography, maps, and notes, as well as a brilliant array of illustrations' Military History Monthly.
For centuries, men have fought and died on the Afghan frontier -- American soldiers and the Taliban are merely the latest. As the gateway to India and the crossroads of Central Asia, Afghanistan has tempted the greed and hunger for power of countless invaders, from the Greek armies of Alexander the Great to Brezhnev’s Soviet forces. Refuge of spies and mountainous court of intrigue, this frontier world is one of the most haunting and gigantic battlefields on earth. This edition of Afghan Frontier includes a new afterword from the author, completing the gripping portrait of a region that is as treacherous as it is alluring.
When Victoria Schofield's three-storey Victorian house in leafy West London collapsed several years ago it made the front page of many newspapers. This witty diary of the ensuing torment of rebuilding, pulling down, and rebuilding again is an eye-opener. No one who reads this wry and often hilarious account is ever likely to say 'safe as houses' again.
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