LONDON TO LADYSMITH VIA PRETORIA

London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1900. First Edition with the early ads dated 1899. With a large folding map at front in colour, a second smaller folding map and a number of other maps and plans throughout the text. 8vo, publisher's original fawn cloth, lettered and pictorially decorated in black, red and gilt on the spine and in red and black on the upper cover. xiv, 498, (32) ads. A handsome copy of a book rarely found so, quite fresh and clean with the normative foxing limited to a few of the prelims only, the hinges strong, minimal mellowing to the susceptible fawn cloth and only minimal evidence of use or age SCARCE FIRST EDITION. A personal record of the first five months of the Boer War includes an account of Sir Redvers Buller's campaign for the relief of Ladysmith along with Churchill’s capture and escape from the Afrikaners.
In a daring escape reminiscent of the exploits of Indiana Jones, Churchill climbed a ten-foot fence and passed a sentry at less than five yards. He had to reach Delagoa Bay, almost three hundred miles away. Finding a railway, he hurled himself aboard a moving train and jumped off later to find water. After a five-day walk, he came to a village where he happened to knock on the door of the only Englishman within a twenty mile radius. (The help Churchill received from this man had to be omitted from the book because the Boer War was still being fought at the time of publication). Eventually, Churchill reached Delagoa Bay.
“I realised with awful force that no exercise of my own feeble wit and strength could save me from my enemies, and that without the assistance of that High Power ... I could never succeed. My prayer ... was swiftly and wonderfully answered.”