The Martini Henry for Queen and Empire by Neil Aspinish

In October 1874, The Martini Henry Rifle was finally issued to the British Army and Navy, being hailed at the time as being the most perfect rifle of its age. However, never before was a service rifle to be subjected to such a baptism of fire that the Martini rifle was to endure; battling not the European enemy it had primarily been designed to fight, but foes who's methods and tactics we honed in a different millennia. This long awaited book is a complete History of the British Military Martini Henry rifle and Carbine in all its many variants and from 1869 to 1903. The book begins at the 1860's trials and continues the story to the new century and beyond. It covers the Bayonets, the Ammunition, the folk lore and the failed projects, the manufacturers, the politics, the battles and the men that were to be forever linked in its story.

256 luxurious full colour pages, embellished with 260 photographs and 156,000 words, Author Neil Aspinshaw has attracted rave internet reviews for his lively an thoroughly absorbing study into The weapon that forged an Empire, and reaches new heights in hitherto unpublished research, information and understanding into one of the most talked about and lauded rifles of Queen Victoria's reign.

As Colour Sgt Bourne famously said at the end of the 1964 film Zulu.., "It's a miracle, it's short chamber, Boxer Henry .45 Miracle..and a bayonet with a bit of guts behind it!"