Charles Miller

From Canning to Curzon; Roberts to Churchill to Kitchener, the Khyber Pass – “a narrow sword-cut in the hills” – was to represent the undefeatable thorn in the side of the British Empire. From the days of the British occupation of Peshawar, predating the great Indian Mutiny in 1857, the surrender of Afghanistan to British Rule hung in the balance over the occupation of the Pass: in the end, British domination of the territory that became known as the Northwest Frontier was only nominal, as the guerillas held out high in the knife-edged hills, unable to be moved. In many ways, this history has remained unchanged and unchallenged as fighters holed up in the Hindu Kush still make their opposition to foreign rule known. and felt. History repeats itself, as pointed out, and this volume holds the lessons learnt by those who have gone before.