Goatsucker Harvest: Jem rides into the Valley of Death - Charge of the Light Brigade

Cannonballs strewn up the Valley of Death after the Charge of the Light Brigade
(Photo by Roger Fenton, Victorian photo journalist, 1855)

In "Goatsucker Harvest", Jeremy "Jem" Kitson is first seen in the hospital in Scutari, fresh from fighting in the Crimean War, taking part in the horrific "Charge of the Light Brigade" with his regiment, the 11th (Prince Albert's Own) Hussars, the "Cherry Pickers", on his beloved horse, Samphire. Suffering shellshock and what we would perhaps now call PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), Jem's ordeal casts a long shadow through the events of the novel, though all, as ever, is not what it seems. Tennyson's famous poem, penned and published just weeks after the events it describes, also echoes through the book with its chilling rhythms of hopelessness and heroism:

"Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honour the charge they made,
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred." - Alfred, Lord Tennyson 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' (1854)

This photo was taken after the Charge in 1855, the year the novel is set, by Victorian photo journalist Roger Fenton, showing the cannonballs still strewn along the infamous "Valley of Death".