Death and peril in occupied territory

In the mid-nineteenth century the British Army continued to conquer lands, especially in Asia and Africa. Occasionally they misjudged. The Lady of Kabul by Michael Scott is the story of a British advance in Afghanistan which went very wrong. The British politicians backed the wrong warlord and left their soldiers stranded in Kabul with the retreat cut off and the winter weather worsening. Living with the soldiers were wives, children and assorted civilians with various roles who were all in danger. Soldiers were captured and killed and many of the non-combatants were held by one of the warring factions in terrible conditions. Eventually the army retreated to India with considerable losses and the civilians caught up in the action had to be freed and then attempt the long and arduous journey to safety with few provisions.

The Lady of the title was Lady Florentia Sale, the wife of one of the more important members of the army. She and her daughter were among many women and children held by an Afghan warlord and continually in danger of being killed because they were no longer useful – her daughter gave birth while in captivity. She took over an informal leadership of the group and worked to get provisions and medical assistance to keep as many people alive as they could.

The author tells the story of Lady Florentia well and shows us clearly how difficult things were for her and her companions and how brave and resourceful she was. Because there are diaries and letters to use as source material the book is able to reveal the inside story of the events in which the women and children were caught up.

I thought that the book was excellent in giving us the full background to the campaign and the reason why things went so very wrong. I did find, however, that there was an awful lot about which army unit was where and when which didn’t really interest me as I wanted to read about the women – this was really a bit of a mix of biography, hagiography and military history. We also never got any opportunity to see the Afghan point of view. It was, however, an insight to military and political tactics in the area at the time and the dangers of some of the actions undertaken by the British.