PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS in ORDER of APPEARANCE

Any similarity to persons now dead is entirely intentional

Jasper Speedicut – an officer and a gentleman, usually known as ‘Speed’

Harry Flashman – a remittance man mostly based in Paris, who is a friend of Speedicut and his controller in ‘The Brotherhood of the Sons of Thunder’, usually known as ‘Flashy’

Lady Charlotte-Georgina Speedicut – Speedicut’s second wife, sister of the 8th Duke of Whitehall

Frederick Searcy – Speedicut’s private secretary, originally a riding instructor in the 2nd Life Guards

Ivan –Speedicut’s Russian valet

Muhamad Khazi – Speedicut’s head coachman, originally a Kizilbashi irregular cavalryman

Atash Khazi – eldest son of Muhamad Khazi and the Speedicuts’ assistant coachman

Fahran Khazi – second son of Muhamad Khazi and the Speedicuts’ second footman

Dr Leander Starr Jameson – surgeon, adventurer and colonial politician

Cecil Rhodes – Empire builder, mining magnate, colonial politician and statesman

Alfred Beit – mining magnate & financier

Paul Kruger – President of the Transvaal, usually known as Oom Paul

Colonel Frank Rhodes – a career soldier and the brother of Cecil Rhodes

Charles-Ethelred FitzCharles, 8th Duke of Whitehall – brother of Lady Charlotte-Georgina Speedicut and Great Boanerges of the Brotherhood of the Sons of Thunder

HRH The Prince of Wales – eldest son of Queen Victoria and Heir Apparent to the British Throne, known as Bertie

Jenny, Lady Randolph Churchill – the widow of Lord Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Churchill and a leading member of London Society

Winston Churchill – a young officer in the 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars

HM Queen Victoria – Queen of Great Britain & Ireland, Empress of India

Major General Sir Bindon Blood – General Officer Commanding the Malakand Field Force

Sibella, Mrs Lionel Holland – wife of a stockbroker

Major General Sir Herbert Kitchener – Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army

HIM Empress Elizabeth of Austria – usually known as Sisi

General Sir Redvers Buller – General Officer Commanding the Natal Field Force

Solomon Joel – a Randlord