On His Majesty’s Service Allan Mallinson (Bantam Press, £18.99) Anyone who has not followed the adventures of Matthew Hervey since his days as a young officer at Waterloo will be well advised to plunge into any of the cavalryman’s escapades in wars across the globe. Mallinson is one of the most professional writers working in the age of Wellington and certainly one of the most elegant. In this, his 11th novel, Hervey is an observer of the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and naturally finds himself in the thick of the action. This is a stirring study of a little-known Balkan conflict and military writing at its very best.

The Girl in the Mirror Sarah Gristwood (Harper Press, £12.99) No less a writer than Alison Weir has praise for this book, the first novel by an expert on the Tudor period. This is Elizabeth’s court in the twilight years of her life, a dangerous time when the hangman would wait on the most innocent and the block beckoned for anyone who appeared to be a traitor. The story revolves around a young girl, in England fleeing religious wars across the continent, now caught up in the queen’s passion for the dashing but ill-starred Earl of Essex. Gristwood’s lyrical prose, with its exquisite allusions to nature’s gardens, makes this a novel to be treasured.

Hellfire James Holland (Bantam Press, £16.99) Holland is another writer who, blooded on non-fiction, has turned his talent to the creation of a hero in a fictional landscape. I’ve followed his tough, uncompromising sergeant, Jack Tanner, in the North African campaign since day one. In this, his fourth desert challenge, he is recovering from wounds in a Cairo hospital when he receives a battlefield commission and finds himself on a counter-espionage mission. Tanner’s war is anything but personal and readers are in for a hair-raising ride against Rommel’s forces with an inevitable showdown at El Alamein.

The Siege Nick Brown (Hodder and Stoughton, £12.99) This is the era of novels centred on Rome and its desperate attempts to protect its empire. Brown joins an irrepressible group of historians who have made this genre their own and there is a feast of battles on which to focus. Brown promises to be one of the most exciting sword-wielding writers in an ever-popular arena. In this, his debut, his principal is a 19-year-old fresh-faced officer commanding 100 men in defence of a Syrian stronghold against a vastly superior force. There are echoes of Beau Geste in this death-or-glory stand.