In the 1880s, Khartoum became the explosive touchstone for a conflict whose scars continue today.For Victorian Britain, control over North Africa was a political minefield into which Prime Minister Gladstone had no intention of stepping - until his emissary Charles Gordon was besieged in Khartoum. This was the height of aggressive European colonialism. Hardships were endured, injustices administered, hair-raising battles fought and civilians caught in the crossfire of imperial fury. Amongst the British officers were famous figures who would later adopt starring roles in the First World War, such as Egyptian Army sapper Captain Herbert Kitchener. By turns brutal and sparkling, this is an unflinching look at the lives behind the North African conflicts which rocked nineteenth-century Britain.