The Siege of Khartoum

The Siege of Khartoum by John Wilcox takes that famous episode and provides another adventure for his hero Simon Fonthill and his companion 352 Jenkins. One of Victorian England's most popular soldiers, General Gordon, is sent by the British Government to organise the evacuation of Khartoum which is threatened by the forces of The Mahdi. Whether by accident or design Gordon finds himself organising not an evacuation but a defence and as the Mahdi and his forces close in the pressure is on the British Government to send a rescue mission. The Prime Minister William Gladstone is reluctant to engage in the Sudan and constantly frustrates General Wolseley in his attempts to progress down the Nile towards Khartoum. Wolseley is also frustrated by the conflicting messages he receives from Gordon and so sends Fonthill and Jenkins to penetrate Khartoum and return with an appraisal of the situation. They manage to infiltrate the city through the lines of the beseigers but are captured on the way back and after surviving brutal treatment that would have left this writer a gibbering wreck return to British lines too late to save Gordon. This is the sixth Fonthill adventure and the fourth that I have read. I shall most certainly endevour to read the other two.