A history of the legendary Gurkhas.Gurkhas have been recruited into the British and Indian armies since 1815 - the year the East India Company went to war with Nepal. Over nearly 200 years these soldiers from the foothills of the Himalayas have become a byword for courage, endurance and loyalty. In this study, Tony Gould examines the many legends that have grown up around them and puts the story of the expansion and contraction of Britain's Gurkha force into the context of Nepalese history, as well as that of the Indian and British armies. The reality of this unique relationship is in many ways more remarkable than the myth.Praise for Imperial Warriors‘An absorbing book’ - The IndependentTony Gould is a non-fiction writer with a special interest in biography and history, and won the Pen Silver Pen Award in 1984. Imperial Warriors: Britain and the Gurkhas (Granta, 1999) was a long-delayed by-product of his national service in the 1/7th Gurkha Rifles, mainly in Malaya (as was), in the late 1950s. Tony worked as a BBC Radio talks producer in the mid-1960s and again later as a part-time freelance producer. In 1975 he became books editor at New Society, and later became literary editor of the New Statesman when the two magazines amalgamated in the late 1980s. From 1994 to 1998 he was a member of the literature panel of the Arts Council of Great Britain. In addition to his books, he has written numerous articles and reviews for a wide range of publications.