Writing about writing

So here we are: the new cover for ‘Cawnpore’. Cawnpore follows John Williamson from Borneo to north west India and the cover beautifully complements the cover for ‘The White Rajah’.

I love this cover. Somehow Accent have found a picture that reflects the reality of the British position at Cawnpore, something that lots of illustrators get completely wrong. The British had a miserably inadequate boundary wall (probably not even timbered as well as it is shown here) which provided no proper shelter. It was hardly a well-prepared defensive position. The picture obviously draws on somebody’s imagination, as almost everybody who sheltered behind that wall was to die.

The knife is a katar, an Indian stabbing dagger.

The book is due out next month and I’ll be writing more about it over the next few weeks.