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Reviews of Palestine 1917

“...excitingly told, moving, complex and rather challenging - about as far away as it is possible to get from what one critic recently described as ‘ the anaemic, fine-tuned, miniature pissing about of the British novel’... the novel’s defining characteristic are meticulous research and the weird objectivity with which it treats the terrible things people are prepared to do to each other.”
The Sunday Times.
“When I heard about the book, I had just completed - for the final volume of my History of the British Cavalry - the chapters on Allenby’s, great, glorious and gory campaign in Palestine. I thought therefore that, since it purported to be set during that campaign, I had better glance at it. The glance immediately developed into an absorbing read. An expected chore became an exercise in sheer pleasure.

“What struck me as especially remarkable was the extraordinary degree to which Mr Smith’s extensive researches resulted in a complete absence of solecisms and incongruities. He has captured marvellously well the atmosphere as well as the reality of the Middle East in 1917. A mere historian can hardly hope to compete... Numerous real-life characters - from T. E. Lawrence to the female spy Sarah Aaronsohn - are depicted with understanding and accuracy. As for the description of the famous Yeomanry charge at Raj, the climax of what is a veritable espionage thriller, I defy any reader to control a rapid beating of the heart.”
Marquess of Anglesey, The Daily Telegraph.
“Few people are writing proper adventure stories these days. Colin Smith has provided a really good spy story set in Palestine in 1917... two Yeomanry regiments will make the last real cavalry charge of the British army... It is all tremendously exciting as we switch from the German/Turkish forces in Jerusalem to the allies in Cairo... The battle scenes are terrific.”
The Sunday Telegraph.
... a rumbustious thriller-spy-war story set in Palestine in 1917, culminating in the cavalry charge by the Warwickshire and Worcestershire Yeomanry against Austrian artillery. Smith has done a formidable amount of research into a little remembered aspect of the First World War... his wide panorama is consistently interesting.”
The Financial Times.
“A good read that gathers pace like the cavalry charge with which the action ends.”
The Independent on Sunday.
“...an excellently researched and well written saga of a stirring time in which the seeds of the Arab-Jewish conflict were sown.”
Yorkshire Evening Post
A well researched novel which, quite apart from entertaining, gives a valuable insight into some of the origins of the present Middle East mess.”
South Wales Argus.
...weaves together the destiny of Germans, Turks, Jews and the men of the Midlands in a vivid and immensely readable work.”
Wolverhampton Express and Star
“...a work of fiction cleverly woven around a cast of real-life characters and historical events... a good read.”
Coventry Evening Telegraph
 

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Buy this as an ebook from Amazon.co.uk
  The Last Crusade
Sinclair-Stevenson,
London, 1991
ISBN: 1 85619 0765

Sinclair-Stevenson Paperback 1993 and 1994
ISBN 1 85619 475 2
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