Matthew Hervey Books

In the tradition of Patrick O'Brian's beloved historical military adventures comes the first in a dashing new series featuring Cornet Matthew Hervey, a young cavalry officer in Wellington's army of 1815. A Close Run Thing For two decades, since the French Revolution, England and her allies have fought a seemingly endless war to loosen Bonaparte's stranglehold on Europe. Matthew Hervey, a twenty-three-year-old parson's son, has risen through the ranks of His Majesty's cavalry to a junior command in the 6th Light Dragoons. Torn by ambition and ensnared in the intrigues of Wellington's army, Matthew struggles to shape his destiny, but his efforts are about to be cast to the winds of fate. For amid the clash of armies, he will find himself a catalyst in the battle of the century...near the small Belgian village of Waterloo.

India, 1816 - Fresh from the field of Waterloo, Matthew Hervey is dispatched on a mission of the utmost secrecy. Leaving behind his fiancee, Lady Henrietta Lindsey, he must journey across tempestuous seas to India, an alien, exotic and beguiling land that will test his mettle to the very limit. For the princely state of Chintal is threatened both by intrigue from within and military might from without, and Hervey - sabre in hand - finds he is once more destined for the field of battle..."Captain Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons and ADC to the Duke of Wellington is back in the saddle ...He is as fascinating on horseback as Jack Aubrey is on the quarterdeck." - "The Times".

ALLAN MALLINSON’S A Close Run Thing and Honorable Company stirred readers and critics with the military adventures of young Captain Matthew Hervey at the Battle of Waterloo and amid the harsh terrain and treacherous intrigues of India. Now, in 1817, Hervey returns to an England whose hard-won peace is shaken by the distress and discord of its people. And even as he is caught up in the turbulent dawn of a new era, he must combat a deliberate attempt to orchestrate his own ruin. The honors he won in India fell short of Captain Matthew Hervey’s deepest desire–to return to his beloved 6th Light Dragoons. But now circumstances allow him to resume command of the unit–and to marry the beautiful Lady Henrietta Lindsay, whom he has loved since childhood. Meanwhile, however, his soldier’s heart is pierced by the sight of men in British scarlet crippled in the service of king and country, now forgotten and cast off, reduced to begging and petty crime. It is no wonder that rabble-rousers clamor for reform and that lawlessness is erupting everywhere, from the cities to the countryside. As for Hervey’s own cavalry, guarding Regency Brighton and ambushing French smugglers in midnight coves, he finds them, too, vastly changed. Their new lieutenant colonel, Lord Towcester, is a cold-eyed martinet–vain, inept, and bigoted–who cares less for the welfare of his men than for keeping the shine on their gleaming brass buttons. Moreover, it soon becomes clear that he will stop at nothing to bring about Hervey’s disgrace and downfall. For in this young officer, a war hero and former aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, Towcester sees all that he himself once forfeited through cowardice. But the scandal that haunts Towcester is an old and secret one and to expose it would cost Hervey his rank, the command of his beloved Sixth–and the means to support his radiant, passionate bride. Even the charming and determined Henrietta, not above a little politicking in high places to right wrongs, is unable to diplomatically put a stop to Towcester’s vendetta. As the Industrial Revolution builds and food riots give way to rioting Luddite mobs, Hervey’s troop is posted to counter the threat of a general insurrection. But his field tactics and peacekeeping vision are jeopardized by enemies both within and without. And then fate calls his regiment to the dark frozen wastes of a distant frontier, where another people’s way of life is being destroyed by the march of change, and where tragedy and bloodshed will force a showdown between Hervey and his nemesis. A Regimental Affair is a stunning tapestry of vivid characters, rousing action, and authentic historical detail that re-creates a world of polite English drawing rooms, poverty-stricken London streets, and frozen battlefields, where human passion and blind fate give birth to the destiny of a nation–and a hero.

1817 and 1818 have not been good years for Matthew Hervey. His beloved wife Henrietta is dead and he is no longer in the Sixth regiment. Now he is kicking his heels in a corrupt and unruly England far removed from its once glorious past. 1819 sees Hervey in Rome with his sister Elizabeth where a chance meeting with man of letters Percy Bysshe Shelley leads him to rethink his future. Realizing just how much he misses the excitement of military action and the camaraderie of his regiment, Hervey hurriedly purchases a new commission and is refitted for the uniform of the 6th Light Dragoons. Hervey’s most immediate task is to raise a new troop and to organize transport, for his men and horses are to set sail for India with immediate effect. What Hervey and his greenhorn soldiers cannot know is that in India they will face one of their toughest trials. A large number of Burmese warboats are being assembled near the headwaters of the river leading to Chittagong, and the only way to thwart their advance involves an arduous and hazardous march through jungle territory. What begins as a relatively simple operation becomes a journey into the heart of darkness, as Hervey and his troop find themselves in the midst of hot and bloody action once more. From the Hardcover edition.

In Europe, rumours of war are rife once again, as Matthew Hervey returns to the Peninsula to fight a new battle, and to confront the ghosts of his first campaign… The year is 1826, and the fragile peace in Europe following the defeat of Napoleon is threatened by Spanish aggression in the Peninsula. Matthew Hervey, newly returned from India, joins a party of officers sent to make an assessment and lend support to their Portuguese allies. His place on the expedition is secured with the help and influence of his new friend, Lady Katherine Greville. But the Peninsula is a place redolent with memories. For it was here as a seventeen-year-old Cornet that Hervey had his first taste of military action. The French forces had pushed the British into an ignominious retreat, losing morale as quickly as ground, until under the leadership of Sir John Moore the army made a defiant stand at Corunna. In the epic battle that followed, Hervey and the Sixth Light Dragoons played their part in one of the Napoleonic War’s most famous military scenes. As the wave of the French onslaught broke against the solid rock of British resolve, the tide of war was turned once and for all in England’s favour. Now, with the Spanish threatening the fortress at Elvas, and as Hervey makes ready for the battle once again, the sights and sounds of the Peninsula bring back a flood of memories. But it is not only Spanish aggression and ghosts from his past that Matthew must confront; Lady Katherine has arrived in the Peninsula and is looking for rewards in return for services rendered. From the Hardcover edition.

The seventh novel in the acclaimed and bestselling Matthew Hervey series finds Hervey alone and a prisoner in the fortress of Badajos on the Spanish border. While Hervey – taken captive in the final pages of The Sabre’s Edge – plans his escape from the Spanish, his memories turn to 1812 when, as a young cornet, he was part of Wellington’s victorious army as it pushed its way north through Spain towards the Pyrenees. But first the British had to storm the fortress where he is imprisoned now: Badajos – a fortress of huge strategic importance – where French resistance was at its most fierce and most bloody. Both The Sabre’s Edge and Rumours of War were Sunday Times bestsellers in hardcover.

The eighth novel in the acclaimed and bestselling series finds Hervey on his way to South Africa where he is preparing to form a new body of cavalry, the Cape Mounted Rifles. All looks set fair for Major Matthew Hervey: news of a handsome legacy should allow him to purchase command of his beloved regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. He is resolved to marry, and rather to his surprise, the object of his affections — the widow of the late Sir Ivo Lankester — has readily consented. But he has reckoned without the opportunism of a fellow officer with ready cash to hand; and before too long, he is on the lookout for a new posting. However, Hervey has always been well-served by old and loyal friends, and Eyre Somervile comes to his aid with the means of promotion: there is need of a man to help reorganize the local forces at the Cape Colony, and in particular to form a new body of horse. At the Cape, Hervey is at once thrown into frontier skirmishes with the Xhosa and Bushmen, but it is Eyre Somervile’s instruction to range deep across the frontier, into the territory of the Zulus, that is his greatest test. Accompanied by the charming, cultured, but dissipated Edward Fairbrother, a black captain from the disbanded Royal African Corps and bastard son of a Jamaican planter, he makes contact with the legendary King Shaka, and thereafter warns Somervile of the danger that the expanding Zulu nation poses to the Cape Colony. T he climax of the novel is the battle of Umtata River (August 1828), in which Hervey has to fight as he has never fought before, and in so doing saves the life of the nephew of one of the Duke of Wellington’s closest friends. From the Hardcover edition.

War at sea: While Matthew Hervey is getting ready to re-join his regiment in England, his close friend Captain Peto is at sea preparing his mighty line-of-battle ship for war with the Turks. 1827: Captain Peto has just taken command of HMS Prince Rupert, the only three-decker line-of-battle ship in His Majesty’s Fleet — a wooden fortress whose formidable firepower is the equal and more of Bonaparte’s grand battery at Waterloo. But his journey to the Aegian, where Admiral Codrington’s flagship awaits him, will not be smooth sailing, having as he does, a largely inexperienced crew. He’s also been entrusted with the safe passage to Malta of the Admiral’s youngest daughter — a situation that is far from ideal for Peto and his crew. A year on, and Hervey is in London recovering from a recent bout of malaria. All is set fair for his upcoming marriage, and his subsequent return to active duty in the Cape. But trouble lies ahead as family commitments clash with affairs of the heart, and Hervey finds himself embroiled in a military enquiry that could result in public humiliation. As the cataclysmic sea-battle of Navarino Bay looms ever closer for Peto and his crew, Hervey faces a regimental crisis that may be beyond even his capabilities. From the Hardcover edition.

In South Africa, Matthew Hervey clashes with the Warrior King of the Zulus. 1828: The stability of the Cape Colony has been threatened by Xhosa tribesmen who have been making incursions across the borders. And when Hervey is told by his old friend, Sir Eyre Somervile, that the Zulu warrior king, Shaka, is about to make war on neighbouring tribes in the south of the country, he knows that matters are perilous indeed. Leaving his new wife and young daughter in England, Hervey speeds to his friend’s aid. He and Somervile journey to meet the Zulu king, but Shaka’s royal kraal is a horrifying place. The sentinels at the gates are corpses, and it soon becomes apparent that Shaka has slaughtered thousands of his own people. Into this febrile atmosphere ride Hervey, Somervile and their escort of dragoons and mounted rifles. But the sudden death of the Zulu king plunges the region into civil war, and Hervey and his men into terrible danger. Yet worse is to come. As Hervey leads Shaka’s queen across the veldt to safety, he knows he must cross an alien landscape where they will be hunted by wild animals — and deadly warriors. From the Hardcover edition.

In the Eastern Balkans, Matthew Hervey faces bloody war with the Turks. January 1829: George IV is on the throne, Wellington is England's prime-minister, and snow is falling thickly on the London streets as Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey is summoned to the Horse Guards in the expectation of command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. But the benefits of long-term peace at home mean cuts in the army, and Hervey is told that the Sixth are to be reduced to a single squadron. With his long-term plans in disarray, he undertakes instead a six-month assignment as an observer with the Russian army, an undertaking at the personal request of the commander-in-chief, Lord Hill. Soon Hervey, his friend Edward Fairbrother and his faithful groom, Private Johnson, are sailing north to St Petersburg, and from there on to the Eastern Balkans, seat of the ferocious war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Hervey is meant to be an impartial spectator in the campaign, but soon the circumstances -- and his own nature --propel him into a more active role. In the climactic Battle of Kulewtscha, in which more troops were engaged than in any battle since Waterloo, Hervey and Fairbrother find themselves in the thick of the action. For Hervey, the stakes have never been higher -- or more personal.

January 1830, one of the hardest winters in memory, and the prime minister, the Iron Duke, is resisting growing calls for parliamentary reform, provoking scenes of violent unrest in the countryside. But there are no police outside London and most of the yeomanry regiments have been disbanded. Against this backdrop Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey, recently returned from the Balkans, takes command of the 6th Light Dragoons. His fears that things might be a little dull are quickly dispelled by the everyday business of vexatious officers, difficult choices over which NCOs to promote, and not to mention the incendiarists on the doorstep of the King himself. But it’s when the Sixth are sent to Brussels for the 15th anniversary celebrations of the battle of Waterloo and find themselves caught up in the Belgian uprising against Dutch rule that the excitement really starts. Will Hervey be able to keep out of the fighting—a war that would lead, nearly a century later, to Britain’s involvement in an altogether different war—while safeguarding his country’s interests? Not likely!

It is 1831, riots and rebellions are widespread . . . In England, the new government is facing protests against the attempts of the Tory-dominated House of Lords to thwart the passing of the Reform Bill. In India, relations are strained between the presidency of Madras and some of the neighbouring princely states. Having taken command of the action in Bristol to restore order after one of the bloodiest and most destructive riots in the nation's history, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey is out of favour with the new government. But then his old friend, Sir Eyre Somervile, offers him a lifeline. Somervile has persuaded the Court of Directors of the East India Company to approve an increase in the Madras military establishment. Hervey and the 6th Light Dragoons are sent to the princely state of Coorg. The Rajah is in revolt against the East India Company’s terms and Hervey’s regiment is called upon to crush the rebellion. With the stakes raised by an unexpected visitation from his past, for Hervey the question is whether he and his men will get out of this brutal war unscathed?

Set against the backdrop of an India in transition, this novel marks the welcome return of Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragons in his fourteenth adventure in the bestselling series. Following their successful invasion of Coorg in order to remove the state's deranged rajah, Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey is looking forward to a few months' respite for his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons, and his family. Indeed, with his stock standing high throughout British India, he has rarely counted himself so content.But it is not to last.Lord William Bentinck, the governor-general believes that Hervey is just the man to form and lead a force of suppression against the 'thuggee' criminals who threaten the stability of both the East India Company's domains and a number of friendly princely states. And so Hervey and the Sixth embark on a campaign that will prove to be infinitely complex and very bloody - and put Hervey's own family in very real danger.Brilliantly researched, beautifully written and wholly engaging, The Tigress of Mysore is set against the backdrop of an India in transition as Allan Mallinson's series hero unwittingly takes his first steps on the tumultuous road that will ultimately lead to the Indian Mutiny . . .