Simon Fonthill Books in Order

How to Read the Simon Fonthill Series

John Wilcox's historical adventure saga follows Lieutenant Simon Fonthill, his resourceful journalist wife Alice, and his loyal Welsh servant and former army orderly '352' Jenkins. Spanning from the sands of South Africa in 1879 to the dense jungles of East Africa at the dawn of the First World War in 1914, the series takes readers to the heart of the British Empire's late-19th-century conflicts. While the publication order is generally chronological, a few notable exceptions exist, making both reading paths highly popular among historical fiction enthusiasts.

Option 1: Publication Order (Recommended)

Reading the books in order of their release is the most straightforward path. This allows you to experience Simon and Alice's evolving relationship and John Wilcox's writing style as it develops. Keep in mind that some online databases mistakenly list 14 books by including the standalone novel Starshine (2012). However, Starshine is a separate World War I novel set in the trenches of France with different characters and is not part of the Simon Fonthill canon. There are actually 13 books in the main series.

• The Horns of the Buffalo (2004)
• The Road to Kandahar (2005)
• The Diamond Frontier (2006)
• Last Stand at Majuba Hill (2007)
• The Guns of El Kebir (2007)
• The Siege of Khartoum (2009)
• The Shangani Patrol (2010)
• The War of the Dragon Lady (2012)
• Fire Across the Veldt (2013)
• Pirates – Starboard Side! (2014)
• Bayonets Along the Border (2014)
• Treachery in Tibet (2015)
• Dust Clouds of War (2015)

Option 2: Chronological Order

If you prefer to follow the strict historical timeline of Simon Fonthill's military career, you will need to make a couple of jumps near the end of the series. Most notably, Bayonets Along the Border (published in 2014) is set in 1897 during the Tirah Campaign, which places it chronologically before the events of the Boxer Rebellion in The War of the Dragon Lady and the Second Boer War in Fire Across the Veldt. Here is the strict chronological sequence based on the historical settings of the stories:

1. The Horns of the Buffalo (Set in 1879 during the Anglo-Zulu War, culminating at the Battle of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift)
2. The Road to Kandahar (Set in 1879–1880 during the Second Anglo-Afghan War)
3. The Diamond Frontier (Set in late 1879/1880 during the Bapedi War in South Africa)
4. Last Stand at Majuba Hill (Set in 1880–1881 during the First Boer War)
5. The Guns of El Kebir (Set in 1882 during the Anglo-Egyptian War in Egypt)
6. The Siege of Khartoum (Set in 1884–1885 during the Mahdist War in Sudan)
7. The Shangani Patrol (Set in 1893 during the First Matabele War in Matabeleland)
8. Bayonets Along the Border (Set in 1897 during the Tirah Campaign on the Indian North-West Frontier)
9. Fire Across the Veldt (Set in 1899–1900 during the Second Boer War and the Siege of Ladysmith)
10. The War of the Dragon Lady (Set in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion in China)
11. Pirates – Starboard Side! (Set in late 1900/1901 during a high-seas escape from China back to South Africa)
12. Treachery in Tibet (Set in 1903–1904 during the Younghusband Expedition to Tibet)
13. Dust Clouds of War (Set in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I in East Africa)

What to Know Before You Start

For fans of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series or C.S. Forester's Hornblower, Simon Fonthill offers a comparable mix of action, military history, and engaging character dynamics. Here are some key points to help you navigate the series:

The Central Trio

Simon Fonthill begins the series as a young lieutenant fighting a false label of cowardice. Over time, he transitions from an active-duty officer into an army scout and intelligence operative, allowing him to be deployed to various hotspots around the globe. He is joined by Alice, who starts as his love interest and quickly becomes his wife. Uniquely for historical adventure novels of this era, Alice is a central figure in the action, working as a war correspondent for the Morning Post. The trio is rounded out by '352' Jenkins, a Welsh veteran who provides muscle, comic relief, and absolute loyalty to Simon.

Can the Books Be Read as Standalones?

Yes. Every novel tells a complete, self-contained story detailing a specific historical campaign, and John Wilcox does a wonderful job of providing enough context that new readers will not feel lost. However, to fully appreciate the personal stakes, the domestic lives of the characters, and the running inside jokes between Simon and Jenkins, starting with The Horns of the Buffalo and reading in sequence is highly recommended.

The Standalone Mystery: Starshine

Some prominent book cataloging sites list Starshine (2012) as Book 10 of the Simon Fonthill series. If you search for it expecting to find Simon and Jenkins in the trenches, you will be disappointed. John Wilcox wrote Starshine as a standalone homage to his own family history (his father and six uncles all served in World War I). It follows Jim Hickman and Bertie Murphy in France and is entirely unrelated to the Fonthill saga. You can safely skip it without missing any continuity.

The Legacy of John Wilcox

Before turning to historical fiction, John Wilcox was a journalist, and his reporting background shines through in his writing. His novels are celebrated by history enthusiasts for their meticulous historical accuracy. Wilcox focused on lesser-known, complex skirmishes of the British Empire, detailing them with a balanced perspective that acknowledges the grit of the soldiers alongside the moral ambiguities of late-Victorian imperialism. Wilcox passed away in 2018, leaving behind the 13-book Fonthill series as his primary literary legacy.