The River War (Lost Treasures)

A very good account of the Reconquest of the Sudan... W.S.Churchill prose is dear to me because he knew how to tell a tale...
I have another edition (I must clarify) but it is not available at the moment...
Get also MY EARLY LIFE (and the film about it is also very good).

ADB

"The River War" by Winston S. Chuchill (5/5 people found this helpful)

The Prime Classics 2005 edition, published by Wildside Non-fiction, of Churchill's account of the reconquest of the Sudan, is spoiled by the lack of maps and the lack of an index. This fascinating story is told superbly by a master of the English language who participated in the battle of Ondurman. In it Churchill refers the reader to maps, with which the visulisation and understanding of the events would have been greatly enhanced. I found the lack of them frustrating. Additionally, the lack of an index limits the use of this edition as source of reference. I found no description on the Amazon/Waterstones web-site to indicate the lack of these items, which I would expect from any serious historical account. My other readings of Churchill (The Second World War) have led me to expect such would be included by the author.

Churchillian Excellence (21/21 people found this helpful)

My copy of "The River War" is a battered 1960 copy purchased some years ago in a second hand bookshop. It is one of the handful of books that I have read more than twice. It is just so well written.

Bearing in mind that Winston Chruchill was present at the final Battle of Omdurman, he had a ringside seat in this "little war", actually taking part in a cavalry charge.

The book starts with a history of "the Soudan" as he writes it, and the early chapters cover the Gladstone and General Gordon story; essential to a total understanding of the problems in the Sudan at the end of the 19th century.

The bulk of the book covers the campaign by Sir H. Kitchener to push up the Nile with a railway, laid at the rate of a mile a day at times -(British railways eat your heart out). The logistic problems of water for men, camals, horses, and steam locomotives was huge.

Churchill`s turn of phrase is inimitable, and he carries the reader smoothly through all the twists and turns of the heroic story - heroic on both sides.

Some reader may be offended by the non-PC language used, such as "Mohammedan" for a follower of Islam, "savages", "inferior race" "fuzzy-wuzzie" etc, but the reader must remember that these words and phrases were quite acceptable at the time, and I reckon that in using them the author is not being insulting, but simply using the language of his times. This was written in 1902 if I remember correctly.

I suspect that more modern works on the subject are more balanced, and accurate, if only for 102 years of hindsight being available, (and more PC), but I can thouroughly recommend getting this book if you have the slightest interest in the subject. And come to think of it, even if you don`t.

Winston S. Churchill

Reader Reviews:

Not the edition I have on the shelves... but the prose must be the same. (2/2 people found this helpful)

"The River War" by Winston S. Chuchill (5/5 people found this helpful)

Churchillian Excellence (21/21 people found this helpful)

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