Yes... An Old Book.
The Great War in England in 1897 by William Le Queux.
First published in 1894.
After talking to my friend David about this book I decided to read it again...
In my opinion this is one of the classics as far as Invasion Fiction is concerned...
Along with...
The Battle of Dorking. Reminiscences of a Volunteer... by George Tomkins Chesney. 1871
The Invasion of 1910... by William Le Queux. 1906
And of course The War of the Worlds... by H G Wells. 1898
The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th saw a rise in the publication and popularity of invasion fiction... not dissimilar from the Red Scare of the 1950s-1960s...
The Great War in England relates a tale of an invasion from France and Russian and a heroic defence by the British nation.
If you can forgive the dated and somewhat jingoistic writing style it makes for a rip roaring and enjoyable read...
This book influenced me a lot when I was making my Shiny Toy Soldier Little Britons.
I think all of the books in my short list are still available in some form or another from Amazon, eBay or your local bookshop...
All the best. Aly
Took your recommendation about the book. Amazon has it available on kindle for free. Thank you
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy it Mark...
DeleteLe Queux was obsessed about the state of the navy and puts in a lot of detail on the names and types of ships for all the sides involved... my butterfly has been hovering over pre Dreadnought battleships 😂
All the best. Aly
An excellent book. Much better than his 'The Invasion of 1910'. In fact, on my own blog 'Great War in England' is the label I use to search for all my 42mm stuff.
ReplyDeleteI should pay more attention Rob...😁
DeleteAll the best. Aly
I like your interpretation of the book cover using your own shiny figure.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jonathan...
DeleteI didn’t have any cliffs or battleships so trees will have to do...😁
All the best. Aly
Aly,
ReplyDeleteyou need pre.dreadnoughts Probably one of the best periods of naval history to refight fictional encounters. A great book to boot as well
I’ve only ever seen the Tumbling Dice models... I wondered if there was anything bigger...
DeleteAlso what rules do you use...?
DeleteAll the best. Aly
Pre dreadnoughts are available in a range of scales from WTF in the US.
DeleteThank you Doug...
DeleteLooks ( and sounds) like a great fun book, love the typeface and illustration!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
It is a fun book... my internal voice when reading it is early BBC English...
DeleteWilliam Le Queux was a Belgian 😁
All the best. Aly
I correct myself....
DeleteLe Queux was born in London... His father was French and his mother English.
He died in Belgium...
Well there you go...
Excellent recommendation Aly. Will check it out as planning something similar but 1830's!
ReplyDeleteI have a nagware British predreadnought fleet. Painted in black white and gold it looks superb. The problem is it's simply bigger and better than any other European navy!,
What figures were you going to use...?
DeleteAll the best. Aly
I've remember the Battle of Dorking, it's a great background for you Little Britons.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a recent flurry of interest in the Battle of Dorking...
DeleteI put it down to the Perry’s announcing their Franco- Prussian War plastics...
All the best. Aly
I recall reading about all this "Invasion Fever" fiction at the end of the 19th century - I think a lot of it was thinly veiled propaganda trying to force the UK to adopt conscription to create a mass army like other European powers - plus the never ending need to update the armed forces - I read on the BBC a week or two ago the British Army might abandon the tank, now that the Challenger II is almost past its sell by date.....sad times in my opinion,
ReplyDeleteYou have a fair point there Keith...
DeleteLe Queux goes on a lot about how unprepared Britain is/was for war...
I think he probably shouted “I told you so” in 1914... I believe he reckoned Germany had sent spies to kill him because he new too much...
All the best. Aly
Yes if we abandon the tank... a couple of years down the road we will be buying second hand Abrams... or preferably Leopards... 🙄
Very good point, Keith! We have seen this tactic employed since.
DeleteLovely book Aly. There is something about the artwork and typesetting of that time that is very attractive.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I bought an original rather than a reprint it is a lot more stylish...
DeleteThe Invasion of 1910 seems to be harder to find...
All the best. Aly
I picked up a collection of invasion stories including this one a few years ago (Kindle so w/o the inspiring cover). Interesting reading but the older I get, the weaker my imagination seems to get (as well as my grip on reality so as to maintain balance) so I now like a more familiar setting. Luckily we have the Fenian raids which took place over familiar ground and are easily expanded into a fictional version of the sort of war the raids became in the minds of the veterans and in the newspapers. .
ReplyDeleteI am sure there were quite a few USA- Canada invasion scares over the years...
DeleteSo you can just pick a decade/century and run with it... I quite fancied a 1850s-1860s invasion with the American volunteers and militias still wearing all those lovely antebellum uniforms...
All the best. Aly
I'm confident it's right up your street for some reason.
ReplyDeleteReally ! 😂...
DeleteAll the best. Aly
Goodness it's nearly as old as Dave🙂 A timely reminder that I still have that in my Kindle library to read, must get around to reading it.
ReplyDeleteI think you will enjoy it old chap... it was compulsory reading when he was at school 😉
DeleteDon't forget that a lot of money was spent on invasion defences – the Palmerston forts at Portsmouth or Coalhouse Fort and other works on the Thames. Before I retired I worked at North Weald Airfield. On the hill to the south is the North Weald Redoubt, which was built and then extended between 1889 and 1904 as the first of thirteen mobilisation centres around London. These formed part of a military scheme known as the London Defence Positions, drawn
ReplyDeleteup in 1888 to protect the capital from invasion.
It was semicircular and about 500 feet across, with an inner
rampart containing three magazines for cartridges and shells
to serve field guns protected by two pairs of casemates until
ready to fire from emplacements, which would have been
dug in on the roof. An outer, lower rampart accessed by
tunnels gave cover to defending riflemen without silhouetting
them against the skyline. Both ramparts were protected by a
ditch and unclimbable fence. The Redoubt was the only
fortified centre north of the Thames.
Just the sort of thing for fending off the invading French or later Germanic hordes in miniature!
That’s very interesting... I wonder how many of these old 19th century redoubts and defences lie unnoticed around the country
DeleteAll the best. Aly
Oh no. Another perilous dip into more figures looms I fear - or at least my bank balance does.
ReplyDelete