A comprehensive history of the Gurkhas, which remains to this day a unique and much-loved regiment, and which played a crucial role in the British Empire.

Throughout our recent and not-so-recent history, the understated, fearless and hearty Gurkhas have served the British loyally and without complaint. For more than a hundred years, this bloodthirsty regiment has followed the British Army around the globe - from Gallipoli to the jungles of Burma in World War II, from Palestine to the Falklands and the Gulf War. This text tells the story of this regiment. It tells of the Gurkha blood running through the veins of British military conquests for more than two centuries, from the founding of the brigade by the terrifying, extraordinary Johnny Gurkha through to the amazing feats that put Gurkhas in the same distinguished company as the British Paras, the Commandos, the Guards and the Black Watch.

The history of the Gurkha serviceman is one that goes beyond soldiering and bravery-it is in equal measure a story of the resilient human spirit, and of a tiny community that carved for itself a niche in world history.

Study of the representation of the Gurkhas - Nepal soldiers who served in Britain's Imperial and post-Imperial armies - in Western literature, and the social/cultural contexts in which European chroniclers operated

Gurkha Warriors is a brilliantly researched and fantastically readable history of this most fascinating of regiments. It tells the story of the amazing feats that put the Gurkhas in the same distinguished company as the British Paras, the Commandos, the Guards and the Black Watch. This fascinating relationship between the British and the Gurkhas - born out of ferocious violence and bloodshed, deadly serious bravery and extraordinary heroics - is one of the most psychologically intriguing and totally astonishing stories known to military history. It is of obvious interest not only to soldiers and historians, but also to members of the general public on whose behalf brave Gurkha soldiers are still sent to spill their own and other people's blood in the four corners of our deeply troubled world today.

The Gurkhas have fought on behalf of Britain and India for nearly two hundred years. As brave as they are resilient, resourceful and cunning, they have earned a reputation as devastating fighters, and their unswerving loyalty to the Crown has always inspired affection in the British people. There are also now up to 40,000 Gurkhas in the million-strong army of modern India. But who are the Gurkhas? How much of the myth that surrounds them is true? Award-winning historian Chris Bellamy uncovers the Gurkhas' origins in the Hills of Nepal, the extraordinary circumstances in which the British decided to recruit them and their rapid emergence as elite troops of the East India Company, the British Raj and the British Empire. Their special aptitude meant they were used as the first British 'Special Forces'. Bellamy looks at the wars the Gurkhas have fought this century, from the two world wars through the Falklands to Iraq and Afghanistan and examines their remarkable status now, when each year 11,000 hopefuls apply for just over 170 places in the British Army Gurkhas. Extraordinarily compelling, this book brings the history of the Gurkhas, and the battles they have fought, right up to date, and explores their future.

Alex Schlacher has accompanied the Gurkhas on operations in Afghanistan, on exercises in the Brunei jungle and Australia, and has visited all the units in the Brigade as well as retired and medically discharged Gurkhas. She has taken intimate portraits of hundreds of soldiers and heard their stories, many of which are recounted in this book. There have been other books on the Gurkhas, but none has portrayed the individual soldiers and focused about their backgrounds, lives and thoughts.