Up Among the Pandies

An outstanding account of the campaign for the fall of Lucknow

This curiously titled book-for it still bears its original appellation-suggests a light hearted view of the experience of warfare. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Leonaur constantly seeks to publish unusual and interesting books of military history, but this book is remarkable on several counts. Firstly, it is a fine account of the final stages of the Indian Mutiny told from the perspective of a young British officer who was actively engaged on the campaign and a participant in many engagements. It has not been available for many years and its republication now is made all the more fitting in this, the 150th anniversary year of the Indian Mutiny itself. It is much more. In researching the Leonaur commemorative book Mutiny: 1857, Up Among the Pandies came to the notice of Leonaur's editors. It revealed itself to be a remarkable work of authorship irrespective of its subject matter. Majendie brings to his writing a fabulous talent for close observation of the detail of events, conversations and the sights he was witnessing that puts this book belongs in a class above the usual military memoir. It is an account of warfare and the experience of war that misses nothing. The reader will see the avenging British Army on campaign, the dust in the morning light and the sweat of exertion running down the faces of its men. The voice of the common soldier is reported without editing for Victorian niceties and combat is described in savage and realistic clarity-including the frequent perfunctory executions in all their ghastly variety. This is a vital book of war as fought by the British Army of the mid-nineteenth century, but in truth it is also an essential book of war that will enthral military historians and general readers alike.