January 1829: George IV is on the throne Wellington is Englands prime-minister & 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 & 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. Soon Hervey his friend Edward Fairbrother & his faithful groom Private Johnson are sailing north to St Petersburg & from there to the Eastern Balkans & the ferocious war between Russia & the Ottoman Empire. Hervey is meant to be an impartial spectator in the campaign but soon the circumstances
- & 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 & Fairbrother find themselves in the thick of the action. For Matthew Hervey the stakes have never been higher
- or more personal.