Literary Works

Satirical prints by James Gillray It is worth remembering that while this site concentrates on invasion scare stories of the Victorian and Edwardian era there is a long history of invasion fears represented in literature and art. Of particular interest are the satirical prints dating from the late 18C and early 19C, especially those of James Gillray.From the outbreak of war with France in the same year, fear abounded that the French would invade England or Ireland. Gillray produced prints in which he imagined the horrors of a successful French invasion, with the streets of London literally running with blood, ...

Anonymous,  "Coming events cast their shadows before." A history of the sudden and terrible invasion of England by the French, in the month of May, 1852, London, T. Bosworth, 1851 According to I.F. Clarke: Many feared that military weakness at home would invite attack from abroad; and for the rest of the century not a decade passed without an alarm of some kind about the dangers pressing upon the nation. After the coup d'état by Louis Napoleon, for instance, there were general fears that the French might attempt an invasion. In order to demonstrate the defenceless condition of the country ...

Alfred Bates Richards (1870) The Invasion of England - A Possible Tale of Future Times, privately published (August 1870) and reprinted in the Morning Advertiser, 15 February 1871 One answer to the new danger came from the editor of the Morning Advertiser, Alfred Bates Richards, who had played a leading part in the establishment of the Volunteers. In the August of 1870 he had a pamphlet printed for private circulation, The Invasion of England, in which he described a successful enemy attack as a warning against "our blind and entire reliance on the Channel and our navy." [I.F. Clarke (1965) ...

George Tomkyns Chesney (1871) The Battle of Dorking, Blackwood’s Magazine For many, this is the work that is regarded as the start of Invasion Literature as a distinct genre. DURING THE EVENING OF 2 September 1871, the British Prime Minister spoke to the Working Men's Liberal Association at Whitby in Yorkshire. Towards the end of his speech he warned his audience and the nation against the dangers of alarmism. It was an unusual occasion in British political history, since Gladstone was attacking a short story that had appeared four months earlier in the May issue of Blackwood's Magazine. It was ...

Anonymous (1871) After the Battle of Dorking; or what became of the invaders? London, George Maddick A short pamphlet follow on to the aftermath of the Battle of Dorking. Original text at: https://archive.org/details/afterbattledork00unkngoog ...

Anonymous (1871) Britannia in Council, London, Grant & Co. Britannia in Council: A Political Retrospect (1871), in which the Battle of Dorking is re-enacted as a kind of Near Future pantomime, in which John Bull and other similar figures reminisce animatedly about the events of 1871, the minatory bite of George T Chesney's tale being translated into farce. [SFE]. This little brochure is described as a "political retrospect." It hits hard at the follies and failures of the Ministers during the Session, and will be read with pleasure by all who can appreciate a smart and racy satire. [Derby Mercury ...

Anonymous (1871) Der Ruhm or The Wreck of German Unity - The Narrative of a Brandenburger Haupmann - Macmillan's Magazine A counter to The Battle of Dorking ...

Anonymous (1871) Our hero: or, who wrote “The Battle of Dorking” No information currently available ...

Anonymous (1871) The Battle of Dorking - Punch 20th May 1871 ...

Anonymous (1871) The Battle of Dorking: a Myth No information currently available ...

Anonymous (1871) The Battle of the Ironclads, or England and her foes In this patriotic forecast of our naval future a hale sea-captain of 1893 is supposed to recount what was England's luck when, fourteen years before, "she met with and overcame the united powers of Germany, America, and Russia." A reaction is supposed to have set in against the Liberals in 1874, and a Conservative Ministry to have looked to our military and naval defences, in bare time to meet the Sclavo-Germanian confederacy's preparations. But for three or four years it was only distant thunder that preluded the great ...

Anonymous (1871) The hens who tried to crow. No information currently available ...

Anonymous (1871) The suggested invasion of England by the Germans No information currently available ...

Anonymous [Charles John Stone] (1871) What happened after the battle of Dorking: reminiscences of a volunteer. Being an account of the victory at Tunbridge Wells,New York: G. Routledge & sons. Original Text at: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044080694029 ...

Abraham Hayward (1871) The Second Armada. A Chapter of Future History. (aka. The Second Armada: A Chapter of Future History: Being a Reply to the German Conquest of England in 1875, and Battle of Dorking) Britain defeats an American navy which has invaded the Irish Sea in 1875 in order to help the Fenians, who now control Ireland [SFE] The story [Battle of Dorking] was seen as a 'wake up' call for rearmament and national preparation, a message which was emphasised by Abraham Hayward in Ins own more optimistic account entitled 'The Second Armada' which first appeared In The Times, ...

Bracebridge Hemyng (1871) The Commune in London : or, Thirty years hence : a chapter of anticipated history, London : C.H. Clark. The Commune in London: A Chapter of Anticipated History (1871) by S B Hemyng, who describes, with a wealth of detail, the ravages and crimes committed in the good city of London by a bloodthirsty working class mob led by demonic female insurgents and secretly controlled by agents of the International. [International Socialism quoting Utopia Ltd. Ideologies of Social Dreaming in England 1870-1900 by Matthew Beaumont]. The Commune in London, or Thirty Years Hence: A Chapter of Anticipated ...

J.W.M. (1871) The Coming Cromwell. Set in a Near Future Britain in which the eponymous military and political leader conquers the monarchist northlands of Britain on behalf of the republican south, overturning the German monarchy as well en passant. [SFE] ...

J.W.M. (1871) The Siege of London: Reminiscences of "Another Volunteer" Records events directly after the main Battle of Dorking scenario, including the defeat of the German army attempting to occupy London [SFE] ...