The Road to Bagdad by Lieutenant-Colonel Brereton (1917)

The Road to Bagdad by Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Sadleir Brereton, originally published in 1917 by Blackie & Son.
What makes this volume particularly fascinating from a historical perspective is the glaring contrast between its romanticized, adventure-novel premise and the grim reality of the historical event it was based upon.

The Propaganda vs. The Reality

The book is subtitled "A Story of Townshend’s Gallant Advance on the Tigris," and was written to capitalize on early British military successes during the Mesopotamian Campaign of World War I. Major-General Charles Townshend originally led a highly successful push up the Tigris River against Ottoman forces, which the British public celebrated with patriotic enthusiasm.

However, by the time Brereton's thrilling boys' adventure narrative was being printed and distributed to readers in 1917, the real-world campaign had collapsed into one of the most disastrous defeats in British military history:

The Siege of Kut: Townshend’s advance ground to a halt after the bloody Battle of Ctesiphon, forcing his army to retreat to the town of Kut-al-Amara. They were besieged by Ottoman forces for five grueling months.

The Catastrophic Surrender: In April 1916, shattered by starvation and disease, Townshend surrendered his entire force of over 13,000 men.

The Aftermath: While General Townshend spent the rest of the war in relatively comfortable captivity as a V.I.P., thousands of his ordinary British and Indian soldiers were forced into brutal death marches across the desert. More than half of the captured troops died of disease, starvation, or brutality before the war ended.

About the Author and Illustrator

The creators behind this book add another layer of historical context to the physical volume:

The Author: Lt.-Col. F.S. Brereton wasn't just a desk-bound novelist; he was a retired Royal Army Medical Corps officer who returned to active service during WWI to command medical units. He effectively ran a parallel career as a highly prolific author of juvenile imperial propaganda, churning out highly sanitised, thrilling accounts of ongoing battles (like Verdun, the Dardanelles, and the Boer War) to foster patriotism and martial pride in young British boys.

The Illustrator: The frontispiece was drawn by Wal Paget (Walter Paget), a celebrated late-19th and early-20th-century illustrator. Paget was famously part of a prolific family of artists; his brother, Sidney Paget, is the legendary illustrator who created the definitive visual look of Sherlock Holmes for The Strand Magazine (reportedly using Wal as his physical model for Holmes).

140mm x 190mm x 40mm

The book is foxed throughout; lacking front free end paper, otherwise complete.

R800