Kitchener
The Man Behind The Legend
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl of Khartoum and of Broome, was Britain's last great military hero. his face became known to millions before his death in 1916 because it appeared on the recruiting posters of World War I over the caption 'Your Country Needs You'. Kitchener's ambition was all for his country. His qualities were evident in the campaigns in Sudan and South Africa. His belief that British influence was good and that the strengthening and extension of British influence was essential for world harmony. Appointed as Secretary of State for War to organise the British Army in World War I he was almost alone in saying the war would not be over by Christmas but would last 3 or 4 years with untold casualties. Philip Warner has written a lucid and exceptional book, with the full consent of Kitchener's family to their exclusive archive. Indeed in the initial reviews it was said 'this story has been told before but never so well".
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A hero of the Victorian era, British general Horatio Herbert Kitchener (18501916) was as famous for his stern, "military'' appearance as for his victories on distant battlefields in the Sudan and South Africa. In this well-researched biography, based on family papers, military historian Warner shows that Kitchener, first Earl of Khartoum and Broome, was a complex figure who, while certainly out of touch with the lives of average soldiers, was at heart an adventurer hiding behind a huge, forbidding mustache. Beginning with the future hero's sheltered childhood and his ``schoolboy-adventure-story'' life as a military surveyor in Palestine and Egypt, the author recounts his rapid career rise, his well-planned battle campaigns and his many conflicts with politicians. This is an informed, balanced account that convincingly disputes many myths, including the notion that Kitchener was homosexual. Warner's books include The Crimean War.
