The Last Zulu King: The Life and Death of Cetshwayo

Hard cover in Good condition bound in the original black cloth covered boards with gilt titles to the spine; with coloured pictorial dust wrapper in Fair condition, with eroded top edges and several small insect holes at the top of front hinge and on the fold-over, not penetrating to the boards. The binding is tight and except for very slight browning of both front and back free end-papers the contents are clean and unblemished. No names or inscriptions and the dust-wrapper, now enclosed in a protective membrane, is unclipped. Octavo (155x228mm), 15 preliminary pages and 240 pages of text, including 6 appendices, a bibliography and index; coloured frontispiece, 15 black and white illustrations, and 3 maps.

Labelled as the first book to detail the life and times of the last of the great Zulu Kings, this book describes a time of great difficulty for that nation. Cetshwayo became King of the Zulu at a time when his country faced territorial encroachment by both Boer and British settlers. He had no intention of yielding to either and, in 1879 inflicted one of the worst military defeats ever experienced by the British Army, at the battle of Isandlwana, when more than 1300 of its men were killed. The British government, some six months later, largely to save national pride, retaliated by sending in a heavily reinforced army which finally routed the Zulu army and took Cetshwayo captive. The Zulu nation was never to recover from its defeat and Cetshwayo is recognised by historians as the last king of an independent Zulu nation.