Synopsis

“Shaba had washed the blade of his stabbing spear, his prized iklwa, many times already. It would be rinsed again today, with the blessings of his ancestor’s spirits, to herd the red soldiers finally from the land of the AmaZulu.”

1879 – the British army has suffered one of the worst defeats in its history at the hands of the Zulu King Cetshwayo. Now the British seek revenge and a second invasion of Zululand is about to take place.

Within the Zulu regiments charged with repelling the assault is Shaba kaNdabuko − driven by ambition to share the glory of battle, to bring honour and cattle to his family.

Meanwhile, new British soldiers are shipped out to replace those lost in the military disasters, and among them is Lieutenant Jahleel Carey, likewise also hoping that adventure will bring him a change of fortune.

But there are also always those on the sidelines of conflict, profiteers like renegade trader William McTeague.

Three men, three women, will be brought together by one of the Zulu War’s strangest episodes, and their destinies will be changed forever.

Praise for The Kraals of Ulundi: “This is well-researched and solid historical fiction – a very worthwhile project.” Adrian Greaves, Anglo-Zulu War Historical Society and author of The Tribe That Washed Its Spears.

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About the Author

David Ebsworth is the pen name of writer, Dave McCall, a former negotiator and Regional Secretary for Britain’s Transport & General Workers’ Union. He was born in Liverpool (UK) but has lived for the past thirty years in Wrexham, North Wales, with his wife, Ann. Since their retirement in 2008, the couple have spent about six months of each year in southern Spain. Dave began to write seriously in the following year, 2009. He has now published three novels, The Jacobites’ Apprentice (2012), The Assassin’s Mark (2013), and The Kraals of Ulundi: A Novel of the Zulu War (May 2014).

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