Quick Take
- Narration: Mike Cooper delivers Snook’s military analysis with controlled authority, handling tactical passages with enough clarity that listeners can follow unit positions without a map in hand.
- Themes: The defense of Rorke’s Drift against overwhelming odds, British infantry professionalism under sustained assault, the full arc of the Anglo-Zulu War through Ulundi
- Mood: Methodical and building, with the pacing of a military professional who respects both sides of the engagement
- Verdict: The companion volume to How Can Man Die Better and the most rigorous audio treatment of Rorke’s Drift available, read the Isandlwana book first, then come directly here.
I went straight from How Can Man Die Better to Like Wolves on the Fold without stopping, which is probably the correct way to consume these two books. By the time Mike Snook finishes his forensic reconstruction of Isandlwana, the events that follow at Rorke’s Drift have been given their full context: the relief garrison there knew what had happened a few miles away, they knew the Zulu force was coming, and they knew they were a company of roughly 150 men against a Zulu contingent of several thousand warriors flushed with the morning’s victory. The fact that they held the mission station is one of the most remarkable defensive actions in Victorian military history, and it has been told many times. Snook tells it differently.
The difference is methodology. Snook is a retired British Army officer commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Wales, the direct successor regiment to the 24th Regiment of Foot that held Rorke’s Drift. He has walked the ground. He has read the regimental records. He brings to the defense the same forensic approach he applied to Isandlwana in the companion volume: a disciplined professional skepticism toward the romantic account and a careful reconstruction of what the tactical and documentary evidence actually shows.
The 150 Against the Thousands: The Tactical Specifics
The popular account of Rorke’s Drift, as anyone who has seen the 1964 film Zulu knows, emphasizes the heroism of the defenders and the overwhelmingness of the Zulu assault. Snook does not dispute either of those elements, but he is interested in the tactical specifics: why did the mealie-bag perimeter hold? How did the defenders manage ammunition, medical care for the wounded, and the critical decision to evacuate the hospital building? How did the Zulu commanders adapt their assault tactics across a night of sustained fighting? These questions require a professional’s eye to answer well, and Snook applies that eye throughout.
Mike Cooper’s narration handles the tactical material with assurance. He does not attempt to dramatize the descriptions of assault and defense, which is the right instinct; Snook’s prose is sufficiently precise that dramatization would actually work against comprehension. Cooper maintains consistent pacing through the sections that involve unit-level movement descriptions, where less attentive narrators tend to rush and lose listeners.
Beyond the Famous Fight: The Full Arc of the War
One of Like Wolves on the Fold’s most useful features is its coverage of the remainder of the Anglo-Zulu War, from the recovery of the lost Queen’s Colour of the 24th Regiment to the climactic charge of the 17th Lancers at Ulundi. This material is less familiar to most listeners than the events of January 22, and Snook covers it with the same analytical care. The war’s second phase, following British reorganization and reinforcement after the Isandlwana disaster, receives detailed treatment that most popular histories omit in the rush to get to the famous battles.
The chapter on command culpability for Isandlwana is placed at the end, after the full account of the war, and the positioning is deliberate. Snook traces the institutional and personal failures that led to the British dispositions on January 22 without reducing the question to a single villain. For listeners who want to understand how a professional British Army came to be defeated by a Zulu force that had no firearms, this chapter is the most directly analytical section in either book and rewards careful attention.
The Eleven Victoria Crosses and the Institutional Narrative Behind Them
Rorke’s Drift is the most decorated single action in the history of the Victoria Cross, with eleven medals awarded for the defense. Snook addresses this directly and with complexity. He acknowledges that the awards reflected genuine gallantry but argues that the concentration of medals on a single action was also partly a response to the disaster at Isandlwana: the army and the government needed a counter-narrative, and Rorke’s Drift provided one. This reading does not diminish the courage of the defenders but situates the official commemoration in its institutional and political context. It is the kind of analysis that only someone with long experience inside a military institution would be positioned to make credibly.
Who Should Listen, Who Should Start Elsewhere
Listeners who have already heard How Can Man Die Better should come here immediately; the two books are genuinely complementary and each is stronger with the other as context. Those coming to the Anglo-Zulu War for the first time may want to start with a more narrative-focused account before engaging with Snook’s analytical approach. For readers who have seen the film Zulu and want to understand what the battle actually looked like in professional military terms, this is the right next step. Snook will not tell you that the film got everything wrong, but he will tell you precisely where it simplified, and that kind of disciplined correction is exactly what the best military history does.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I listen to Like Wolves on the Fold before or after How Can Man Die Better?
After. The two books form a sequential account of the opening of the Anglo-Zulu War, with How Can Man Die Better covering Isandlwana and Like Wolves on the Fold covering Rorke’s Drift and the remainder of the war. Reading them in order provides both the context Snook assumes and the full benefit of his argument across both battles.
Does the book cover only the defense of Rorke’s Drift, or does it address the entire Anglo-Zulu War?
Both. The defense of Rorke’s Drift receives the most detailed treatment, but Snook continues through the British reorganization, the second phase of the war, and the climactic Battle of Ulundi. He also revisits Isandlwana at the end to address command culpability, making the book a more complete account of the war than its title suggests.
How does Snook’s account differ from the version of events in the 1964 film Zulu?
The film is dramatically effective but simplifies and invents at several points. Snook’s account focuses on the tactical specifics, how the perimeter held, how the Zulu assault evolved across the night, how ammunition and medical care were managed, and produces a picture that is more complex than the film’s version.
Why were eleven Victoria Crosses awarded for Rorke’s Drift, and does Snook address the controversy around that number?
Snook addresses this directly. He acknowledges the genuine gallantry represented by the awards but argues that the concentration of medals on a single action also reflected the army’s institutional need for a counter-narrative after the disaster at Isandlwana. It is a nuanced reading that acknowledges both dimensions without dismissing either.
