"Scenes and Adventures in Affghanistan" by William Taylor

With British troops once again engaged in fighting in the wilds of Afghanistan, this personal memoir of a Sergeant-Major of the Fourth Light Dragoons of the 1838-39 campaign in that unforgiving country is of great topical interest. Then, as now, Afghanistan was a crossroads which attracted the great powers with usually fatal results. This grim narrative of murders, suicide, betrayal, and of marches and fighting in an inhospitable environment has echoes of today's headlines.