The Boer War by Pakenham, Thomas

(Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers, 1982) 029777395x. 8vo; original brown boards, lettered in white on spine; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pictorial endpapers; pp. xxii + 659; plates; maps. Dustwrapper very slightly rubbed and edgeworn, sunned to spine panel, and foxed on reverse side; endpapers a little foxed; regular browning througout; occasional fox spot. Good condition. 'Thomas Pakenham has written the first full-scale documentary history of the war to be attempted since 1910. his narrative is based on first-hand and largely unpublished sources. He has combed the original British documents in the Public Record Office and the material in South African archives. He has traced the private papers of most of the protagonists. He found the letters of Sir Redvers Buller - the British Commander-in-Chief in 1899 - letters which had remained hidden under a billiard table at Buller's house in Devon. He has unearthed new material from the trunk-loads of Lord Roberts's papers, discovered a massive secret journal of the war compiled by the War Office Intellilgence Department, and found the private letters from the War Minister, Lord Lansdowne and other members of the Cabinet. and he has dug up several hundred sets of letters and diaries written by the men who fought in the war. finally, he has tape-recorded the memories of over fifty survivors from both sides.' .