The Purple Plain

by H E Bates

Published November 1969
'One of the most exciting and perfectly executed pieces of fiction that I have ever read' - Spectator 'It haunts you, alike for the queer and mounting suspense and for the masterly portraits of the three men' - Sunday Times Part of the Cassell Military Paperbacks spring fiction promotion

The Scarlet Sword

by H E Bates

Published 28 February 1974
In Kashmir, a small expatriate community seek shelter from the fighting in a Catholic mission. But the tribesmen who sweep down from the hills are bent on rape and massacre. And the mission is in their path. For ten days, the inhabitants suffer occupation, before finally being liberated by the British Army. But even when surrounded by chaos and senseless destruction they still manage to find hope - in God, in action, in each other.