‘Dalrymple brilliantly evokes the tense equilibrium on the eve of the Indian Mutiny, and with pace and panache, leads us to the explosion … A towering achievement’
The Times
‘An outstandingly gifted historian’ Max Hastings,
Sunday Times
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Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, 2013
‘He is a master story-teller’ Max Hastings,
Sunday Times
In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 20,000 troops poured into the country and re-established Sah Shuja ul-Mulk on the throne. But after two years of occupation, the country exploded into violent rebellion as the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad. The British troops retreated through mountain snow drifts and were utterly routed by Afghan tribesmen – it was the greatest military humiliation of the nineteenth century.
With access to a wide range of recently discovered sources, William Dalrymple’s masterful retelling of Britain’s greatest imperial disaster is a powerful parable of colonial ambition and cultural collision, folly and hubris. Told through the lives of unforgettable characters on all sides,
Return of a King
is history at its most urgent and important.
‘This is clear-eyed, non-judgemental, sober history, beautifully told’ Jason Burke,
Observer
‘Dalrymple has written some marvellous books on the British in Asia but this, I think, is his best’
Daily Telegraph
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First published in Great Britain 2009
This electronic edition published 2010 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Copyright © 2009 by William Dalrymple
Extract from
The Epic of Pabuji
by John D. Smith © 1991 The Faculty of Oriental Studies, published by Cambridge University Press and reproduced by permission
Extracts from
When God is a Customer
by A.K. Ramanujan © 1994 University of California Press and reproduced by permission
Extract from
Grace and Mercy in her Wild Hair
by Ramprasad Sen © 1999 Ramprasad Sen and reproduced by permission of Hohm Press
Extract from
The Interior Landscape
by A.K. Ramanujan © 1994 reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press India, New Delhi
‘The Daughters of Yellamma’ and ‘The Singer of Epics’ were previously published in earlier form in the
New Yorker
The right of William Dalrymple to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved.
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eISBN: 978-1-4088-0341-7
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