John Masters was a soldier before he became a novelist. Born in India, he was sent to England to complete his education before attending Sandhurst. It was there the rumour began about his ancestry, that (in the language of the time) he 'had a touch of the tarbrush'. This encounter with racist bigotry would be turned to good effect in his novel, Bhowani Junction (later filmed with Stewart Granger and Ava Gardner). At Sandhurst it just made him more determined to succeed. John Masters joined a Gurhka regiment on receiving his commission. Here, He depicts garrison life and campaigning on the...

As Captain Rodney Savage of the 13th Rifles celebrates the start of 1857 in the isolated town of Bhowani there is unrest stirring in the neighbouring state of Kishanpur. Captain Savage is ordered to Kishanpur to protect the state's ruler and her young son. As the tension develops into violence and the British struggle to identify who is loyal to them the full horror of the Indian Mutiny emerges. One of the great novels of India, Nightrunners of Bengal combines John Master's mastery of story-telling with an intuitive sense of history.

The second part of John Masters' autobiography: how he fought with his Gurkha regiment during World War II until his promotion to command one of the Chindit columns behind enemy lines in Burma. This is a moving story that culminates in him having personally to shoot a number of wounded British soldiers who could not be evacuated before their position was overrun by the Japanese. It is an uncomfortable reminder that Churchill's obsession with special forces squandered thousands of Allied lives in operations that owed more to public relations than strategic calculation.