Chain of Fire

Campaigning in Egypt and the Sudan, 1882-98

In the 1880s, control over northeastern Africa was a political minefield into which Prime Minister Gladstone did not want to step—until his emissary Charles Gordon was besieged in Khartoum, and the city became the focal point for war.

It was the height of European colonialism. Injustices were administered, bloody battles fought, and civilians caught in the crossfire. Among the British officers were figures who would later adopt starring roles in the First World War, such as Egyptian Army sapper Captain Herbert Kitchener.

By turns shocking and dynamic, Chain of Fire examines the terrible desert wars using the testimonies of the men who fought there.

©2025 Peter Hart (P)2025 Tantor Media

adequate book with heinous narration

this is a reasonably good narrative history about British Imperialism in Egypt in the late 19th century. the narrator has a voice that is totally unsuited to voice over work. he affects voices for every direct quotation, and opts to read every soldier as a snarling Cockeysville and every officer as a meeting posh-o. the surface-level acting decisions aside, he also has a pattern of ending every quotation with a strange, contrived tone suggesting he's just told you a dangerous secret. once is fine, twice is irritating and every subsequent instance is just a knife in the ear