Customer Reviews

Leopard and the Cliff

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The novel is based around real events.

In the tribal areas of the NW Frontier Province policing is conducted by Regiments of the Frontier Corps such as the Gilgit Scouts and the Khyber Rifles composed of local men under seconded army officers.

In 1919 war broke out between Britain and Afghanistan which severely destabilised the tribal areas. In the Waziristan area the Frontier Corps units became highly unreliable. The novel deals with the effects of this on one particular unit, its officers and other ranks - both tribal and British.

The book gives a very thorough exposition of tribal culture, the Frontier Corps and its operations as well as the employment of the Vickers Medium Machine Gun. As the other reviewer said it is useful in throwing light on the complex motivations of the Moslem soldier when his loyalties are strained, the difficulties of cross cultural relations in a military context and the problems of commanding para-military units in remote under-developed areas.

That aside, however, it is an extremely depressing book which makes "All Quiet on the Western Front" look quite jolly. This is why I have given it four stars. Expect to be educated, expect good, gripping writing - BUT do not expect to be uplifted.

I would also stress that this represents an episode in the history of a Corps which has given good service to Britain and Pakistan for many years prior to 1919 and up to the present day.

To place the book in context I would recommend reading "The Frontier Corps" by Charles Chevenix Trench

In the news recently we've seen the sad example of a catastrophic failure of duty in an Italian cruise ship captain who crumpled under pressure and abandoned his charge. Inspired by actual events during the Third Anglo-Afghan War, "The Leopard and the Cliff" is in contrast the story of a man who faces the challenge of sudden disaster by stepping up to the mark and accepting that a leader's duty of care may require the ultimate sacrifice.

A thought-provoking novel on many levels, this is one of those books that stay with you long after you've finished it. Its hero is Major Charles Sandeman, a middle-aged British Indian Army officer regarded by regimental superiors as a nonentity - he doesn't have the sort of dash and driving ambition they look for. He's been consistently passed over for promotion, ironically, as will be shown, for his lack of leadership qualities. He's come to see himself as a failure, though his quiet strengths are soon made obvious to the reader.

Sandeman is a third-generation British Indian Army soldier. He was born in India, speaks several of the native languages fluently and is versed in the literature. He loves the harsh beauty of the borderlands between India and Afghanistan. He likes the people and gets on well with them. He's found a comfortable niche at a remote outpost in Waziristan where he helped to set up the Frontier Scouts - an experiment in passing control of security into the hands of British-trained native militia.

When war breaks out between India and Afghanistan in 1919, Sandeman is caught, as the local saying goes, "between the leopard and the cliff". The border tribes rise up against British rule, and many of the Scouts mutiny and join them. Sandeman finds himself by default commander and in charge of leading the retreat of the remaining loyal Scouts and camp followers to the nearest secure British fort some fifty miles away. So begins a nightmarish, seemingly endless trek to safety through searingly hot, unforgiving terrain, fighting savage ongoing running battles with hostile tribesmen along the way.

Full of action and suspense, "The Leopard and the Cliff" is vividly realized and superbly written in a restrained, understated style which reflects Sandeman's personality. It's a masterful psychological study of the complexities of cross-cultural interaction, the knife-edge balance of colonial allegiances and the nature of command. Thrown without warning into his new role, Sandeman must learn as he goes, and his first hard lesson is that sentiment has no place in a commander's decisions -the welfare of the whole must come first. He feels both the burden of responsibility and deep loneliness - he is the only surviving British officer and doesn't know which of his Pathan sub-commanders he can trust. Simmering blood-feud between two of his officers is an added complication. Plagued by a sense of inadequacy, Sandeman agonizes over the results of his decisions and feels he has failed his men, although it's clear to everyone else that he achieves something not much short of a miracle in saving as many as he does in such impossible conditions.

Breem knew the volatile Northwest Frontier and its people well - he himself served as an officer with the Frontier Scouts. He couldn't have foreseen "The Leopard and the Cliff"'s striking current relevance, but perhaps it wouldn't have surprised him. No one could fail to spot the correlation; the depressing reality that though nearly a hundred years have gone by since the Third Anglo-Afghan War of 1919, war is being fought yet again in Afghanistan, exacerbated by the same deep cultural divide and conflicting tribal interests. As Sandeman discovers, even years of mutual friendship can't always outweigh the pull of jihad and tribal loyalties; only the brotherhood of arms can transcend all differences. Although gripping, "The Leopard and the Cliff" is not an easy read; it's often brutal and heart-breaking, and raises some thorny moral issues, such as whether an act of betrayal at a personal level can be seen as treachery if it's a wider gesture of patriotic resistance against an unwanted foreign power. However, its central message that an ordinary person can rise above himself, putting others first, and succeed against all odds is a moving and inspirational one. Out of print for many years, "The Leopard and the Cliff" has recently been reissued . Hopefully this time round it will get the recognition it so richly deserves.

"The Leopard And The Cliff" by Wallace Breem. Subtitled: "A Novel Of The North West Frontier". St. Martin's Press, New York 1978.

Wallace Breem, who died in 1990, once served in the Indian Army. When India and Pakistan were portioned in 1947, Breem had to return home to England, where he wrote a few books and worked in the "Inner Temple" in London. This employment led to the book, "A Sketch of the Inner Temple Library", about that law library.

I believe that the book, "The Leopard And The Cliff", had some autobiographical aspects to it, particularly in the retrospective ruminations of the main character, "Seneman sahib" = Sandeman. This character, Sandeman, looks back over his life and his time in what was basically a backwater posting, when many of the officers have just returned from the great slaughter that was World War I. It is 1919 and the various sections of the different tribes, the Wazirs and the Mahsuds, are agitating to regurgitate the British army that is lodged in the throat of Waziristan, a section of what was then Afghanistan. Sandeman has just gotten married and he is concerned for the future of his soon-to-be born child. "Photographs: His company at Sandhurst, various regimental groups, polo, shooting and hockey teams ..." they all would have to be left behind as the troops retreat to safety. Class status, which means so much to the British, limited Sandeman's future in the provincial army, and as he ruminates, he is thrust into command of his troops who remain after desertion, treachery and "passive" mutiny.

Most of the book is then devoted to the retreat of the troops through the mountainous and dry land of Waziristan, where his main concern is obtaining water for the men and the animals. One by one, the British officers are killed, despite the best efforts of Sandeman and his excellent marksmanship. Page by page, you expect the disastrous end of the retreat, but there is always too much of the book remaining. For example, in one place the entire force appears to be trapped and the mutinous soldiers and local tribesmen appear ready to surround them. THEN!, the nascent RAF appears, and the enemy forces are treated to rain of bombs and to strafing. Recall that this is supposed to be 1919.

The retreat of Sandeman with his loyal troops, is quite similar to the retreat of the Marines in Korea, during the Chosin Campaign. See "The Marines Of Autumn" by James Brady, St. Martin's, 2001. In Brady's novel, the main character, Marine officer Thomas Verity, dies just as the Marines reach safety. In Breem's novel, the chief character, Sandeman, also dies just as his forces safety.

One thing that I did not like about Breem's work was his almost constant insertion of Pashtu and Waziri-Pashtu words into the text. I do not think that "exotic" words added to the story. Four pages of glossary were at the back of the book (pages 283-286), but my enjoyment of the novel was interrupted every time I had to refer to the back of the book to determine what a strange word meant in English.