Böcker av Will Roberts

The myths and legends surrounding the Amazons, the warrior women made famous by the poets of ancient Greece, especially by Homer in the Iliad, are fascinating. Stories of a warrior tribe of women, who lived in a lesbian society, removed one of their breasts to make the use of a bow easier and fought the likes of Hercules, Theseus and Achilles, have largely been rejected as folklore. Recently some exciting discoveries have been unearthed in the region where these fierce warriors were supposedly from, and have shown that these myths of fierce women who rode horse-back and let loose their arrows when at a gallop, are founded in reality.

Twenty more stories from Will Roberts of courageous women who led men into battle, including:Ching Shih, a prostitute from the Guandong province of China, became the leader of the Red Fleet of pirate ships. With more than one thousand, the largest fleet of pirate ships the world has seen and accumulated vast wealth on a remarkable journey.Queen Tomyris of the Massagetae, a tribe of Scythians from east of the Caspian Sea. Tomyris defeated the mighty army of Cyrus the Great of Persia. Cyrus was killed during the battle, and Tomyris had his head removed and placed in a bucket of blood. 'To quench his thirst for blood,' she reportedly said.Candace of Kush was the only African leader, male or female, who successfully resisted the Romans and maintained its territory as an independent state. Unfortunately, she lost an eye during the conflicts and became known as 'the one-eyed Queen of Kush'. Saint Olga of Kiev. After her husband was horribly killed by her neighbours, The Drevilians, Olga exacted gruesome revenge for her husband's death. Later, she converted to Christianity and was made a saint despite her horrible history.

From the Roman era; this compilation would not be complete without Boudica of the Britons, and I have included two others who resisted the Romans who were determined to impose the ways of Rome on their culture: Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, and Mavia, of the Tan¿khids, (Saracens), who led a similar revolt against the Romans one hundred years after Zenobia.From Asia, I chose Nakano Takeko, who fought to uphold the shogun and the samurai traditions. She led a squad of women against the riflemen of the Imperial army of Emperor Meiji, armed with only her naginata, the traditional samurai pole weapon, in the Boshin War. Also, from this region, and my favourite, I have Ba Trieu, the Korean warrior who resisted the Chinese invasion in the third century. She must have looked magnificent as she rode into battle on her great war-elephant, with her yellow cloak billowing in the breeze.

The war between Great Britain and two small South African Boer (Afrikaner) Republics-the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State- occurred at the end of the nineteenth century. It was inevitable that the British would achieve victory because of the vast resources of its Empire, but the Boers introduced them to tactics and warfare that shook them to the core. This was a foretaste of what would characterise the fighting of World War One. The Transvaal became one of the wealthiest countries in the world on the discovery of massive deposits of gold - but what became of the vast amount of gold coin and bullion, which disappeared during the Boer War? Has Adam Evans found it?