The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) made a deep impression on contemporaries. In this war, Boer farmers, armed with the most modern weapons, won several brilliant victories over the British regular army. On the battlefields of the Boer War, Mauser rifles and Maxim machine guns countered the tactics of the Napoleonic Wars that European armies continued to adhere to. After the last Boer army was defeated, brutal guerrilla warfare continued for two more years. The British Empire was eventually victorious, but paid for it with the loss of twenty thousand soldiers. After the war, the British inherited a completely depopulated and ruined country. Arthur Conan Doyle took part in the Boer War as a military doctor. He became the first historian of this war. The first edition of his book was published at the end of 1900, when the war was coming to an end, but was far from over. Between 1900 and 1902, Conan Doyle's book went through eighteen editions! The venerable writer constantly supplemented his work with new chapters. The famous author of stories about Sherlock Holmes and Brigadier Gerard fully confirmed his reputation as a brilliant writer. What makes the book particularly interesting is the fact that the author was a direct witness and participant in the events. Conan Doyle's history of the Boer War, published for the first time in Russian, deserves the attention of all those interested in the military and political history of the era of the great colonial empires of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.