1899, China. The Mandarins are becoming troublesome again and there are rumours thatattacks wiLL soon begin on British trade missions and Legations. Captain David BLackwood of the Royal Marines received a VC in the bloody battle for Benin, Africa, but is now being packed off to this apparent backwater. But there are plenty of troubles in store for Btackwood in the shape of an errant nephew and a beautiful German Countess who insists he personatty escort her up river on a smart steamer into the heart of the country. China is a sleeping tiger that wiLL soon awake when the Boxer RebeLLion erupts into bloody war in 1900. True to their motto, the Royal Marines are the first to Land - and the Last to Leave.

Douglas Reeman joined the Navy in 1941. He did convoy duty in the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the North Sea, and later served in motor torpedo boats. As he says, "I am always asked to account for the perennial appeal of the sea story, and its enduring interest for the people of so many nationalities and cultures. It would seem that the eternal and sometimes elusive triangle of man, ship and ocean, particularly under the stress of war, produces the best qualities of courage and compassion, irrespective of the rights and wrongs of conflict... The sea has no understanding of righteous or unjust causes. It is the common enemy, respected by all who serve on it, ignored at their peril.' Apart from the many novels he has written under his own name, he has also written more than twenty historical novels featuring Richard Bolitho, under the pseudonym of Alexander Kent.

Acknowledgement

Old and New

The Letter

Boarders Away!

A Bit of a Lark

Just Ten Good Men

A Walk in the Sun

Under Fire

A Bit of History

Divided Loyalty

No Pity

The Hero

The Last Bugle

Soldiering

Love and Hate

Stand and Fight

Never and Right Words

Roll-Call

Epilogue