Allan Mallinson - The Nizams Daughters

ALLAN MALLINSON

BANTAM BOOKS

LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY AUCKLAND JOHANNESBURG

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Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781407068602

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THE NIZAMS DAUGHTERS
A BANTAM BOOK: 9780553507140

First published
in Great Britain in 2000 by Bantam Press
a division of Transworld Publishers
Bantam edition published 2001

Copyright Allan Mallinson 2000, 2007

Allan Mallinson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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To
the dwindling but gallant band of members of
The Indian Cavalry Officers Association ,
who truly cared about India and their sowars,
this book is with admiration dedicated.

ALLAN MALLINSON IS A FORMER CAVALRY OFFICER . Besides the Matthew Hervey series, he is the author of Light Dragoons , a history of four regiments of British Cavalry, one of which he commanded, and a regular reviewer for The Times and the Spectator . His Matthew Hervey novels are all available in Bantam paperback and his new novel, Man of War , is now available in hardcover from Bantam Press.

For more information on Matthew Hervey, please visit his website on www.hervey.info

www. books at transworld .co.uk

Also by Allan Mallinson

AND FEATURING MATTHEW HERVEY

A CLOSE RUN THING

1815: introducing Matthew Hervey, fighting for King and country at the Battle of Waterloo.

I have never read a more enthralling account of a battle... This is the first in a series of Matthew Hervey adventures. The next cant come soon enough for me

DAILY MAIL

THE NIZAMS DAUGHTERS

1816: in India Matthew Hervey fights to prevent bloody civil war.

Captain Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons and ADC to the Duke of Wellington is back in the saddle... He is as fascinating on horseback as Jack Aubrey is on the quarterdeck

THE TIMES

A REGIMENTAL AFFAIR

1817: Matthew Hervey faces renegades at home and in North America.

A riveting tale of heroism, derring-do and enormous resource in the face of overwhelming adversity

BIRMINGHAM POST

A CALL TO ARMS

1819: Matthew Hervey races to confront Burmese rebels massing in the jungle.

Hervey continues to grow in stature as an engaging and credible character, while Mallinson himself continues to delight

OBSERVER

THE SABRES EDGE

1824: in India Matthew Hervey lays siege to the fortress of Bhurtpore.

Splendid... the tale is as historically stimulating as it is stirringly exciting

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

RUMOURS OF WAR

1826: while Matthew Hervey prepares for civil war in Portugal, he remembers the Retreat to Corunna twenty years previously.

I enjoyed the adventure immensely... as compelling, vivid and plausible as any war novel Ive ever read

ANDREW ROBERTS , DAILY TELEGRAPH

AN ACT OF COURAGE

1826: a prisoner of the Spanish, Matthew Hervey relives the blood and carnage of the Siege of Badajoz.

Concentrating on the battle of Talavera and the investment of Badajoz, both sparklingly described, [Mallinson] plays to his undoubted strengths

OBSERVER

COMPANY OF SPEARS

1827: on the plains of South Africa, Matthew Hervey confronts the savage Zulu.

A damn fine rip-roaring read

LITERARY REVIEW

The Nizams Daughters is a work of fiction: the princely state of Chintal never existed. However, the story is firmly rooted in what was happening in India just after Waterloo in the build-up to the third Maratha war. And Chintal (even with its singular rajah) is, I would maintain, not untypical of the minor princely states whose precarious existence depended increasingly on the Honourable East India Company. They were states where young Englishmen like Hervey as soldiers, administrators or tutors to the royal household often had disproportion-ate influence.

India had its own military language, of course, and in this story I use some of that language, though in a way, I trust, that will not bar understanding if the words are unfamiliar. But just a few words of explanation of the different terms used by the Honourable East India Companys army and others may be of help. The list is by no means exhaustive, and it must be remembered that terms (and spelling) varied between the Companys three presidencies (Bengal, Madras, Bombay), and were in unofficial use long before being formalized: