Forty years ago today, on April 30, 1980, six gunmen took over the Iranian embassy in Kensington in London. Six days later, the British Special Air Service stormed the building, rescued most of the hostages and killed most of the gunmen. The siege of the embassy was broadcast around the world on television, and it made the SAS the hottest, sexiest … [Read more...] about The Siege
Our Lady Of Mercia
Clan Cornelius has been spending many an evening during the Great Quarantine on the frontiers of Dark Ages England, watching The Last Kingdom. We rewatched Season 3 and have delved into Season 4 which is now available in its entirety on Netflix. Based on Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Chronicles, the Last Kingdom of the title is 9th Century … [Read more...] about Our Lady Of Mercia
There’s A Panther In The Sky
I’ve probably given Tecumseh short-shrift here at Frontier Partisans. He is widely regarded as the most talented leader of the indigenous resistance to American power and the pan-Indian movement he sought to create in the early years of the 19th Century was the last best chance to establish a genuine (non-reservation) native sovereignty in the … [Read more...] about There’s A Panther In The Sky
A Victim Of Life’s Circumstances
Read a story on Monday where Mayor de Blasio of New York City said that it’s “unconscionable” that criminals released from jail to save them from COVID-19 would commit crimes while on release. Uh... criminals... I’ve been relying on my well-honed propensity for dark or absurd gallows humor to keep me from spiraling into rage at the … [Read more...] about A Victim Of Life’s Circumstances
The Brave Ones
Taylor Brown, author of the magnificent new novel Pride of Eden, scouted out a forthcoming National Geographic doco on an all-woman anti-poaching unit in Zimbabwe. Looks potent. From Deadline: Akashinga: The Brave Ones is set to have its world premiere at the EarthXFilm Festival, which will be held virtually April 22-27 to celebrate the 50th … [Read more...] about The Brave Ones
Free-Shooter And Partisan: The Tale Of a Teenaged Resistance Fighter
By Rick Schwertfeger Captain, Frontier Partisans Southern Command, Austin, Texas One morning in Occupied France in 1944 German soldiers emerged from a billet to find all the tires of their bicycles and motorbikes slashed. And one bicycle was missing – stolen. Unbeknownst to them, the culprit was a young French woman, Simone Segouin. She … [Read more...] about Free-Shooter And Partisan: The Tale Of a Teenaged Resistance Fighter
Exploding Into Chaos
As if the April 26 premier of Season 4 of The Last Kingdom on Netflix did not offer a sufficient feast for Frontier Partisans, April 16 will bring us the third season of Fauda. The Israeli special operations thriller is propulsive storytelling and compulsive viewing. “Fauda (Arabic for ‘Chaos’) tells the story of an undercover unit in the … [Read more...] about Exploding Into Chaos
Burnham & Haggard On The Imperial Frontier
Haggard stands at the fountainhead and nexus of what I call “exotic adventure fiction.” Such fiction moves beyond the sort of stories told up until that time —adventures of pirates, cowboys, swashbucklers, explorers and whatnot — and adds something extra, something over the top, something truly exotic. One strand leads to tales of Indiana Jones, … [Read more...] about Burnham & Haggard On The Imperial Frontier
The Passing Of A Yarn-Spinner
I stumbled over it in the Glendale Public Library back in 1987. You know there’s no way I’m going to pass by a book titled Yellowstone Kelly: Gentleman & Scout. I sat down on the floor in the aisle, cracked it open and started laughing my ass off. Peter Bowen’s first book was an irreverent romp through High Plains Hi-jinx that hit on all the … [Read more...] about The Passing Of A Yarn-Spinner
Not Dead Yet, You Bastards!
It’s been an exceptionally shitty 24 hours. John Prine is dead. The Sisters Rodeo is cancelled in what would have been its 80th year. Oregon schools are shut down, so our local seniors won’t have a graduation or a spring sports season, or school plays and concerts and... you know the drill. Probably sucked where you live, too, cuz that’s the way it … [Read more...] about Not Dead Yet, You Bastards!
