Return of a King : The Battle for Afghanistan - William Dalrymple

Return of a King

The Battle for Afghanistan

By: William Dalrymple

Paperback | 2 January 2014 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $24.99

$24.50

or 4 interest-free payments of $6.13 with

Aims to ship in 5 to 10 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE 2013
''As taut and richly embroidered as a great novel . . . a masterpiece'' Sunday Telegraph
''Dazzling'' Sunday Times | ''Magnificent'' Guardian | ''Sparkling'' Daily Telegraph
A towering history of the first Afghan War by bestselling historian William Dalrymple.

In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk.

On the way in, the British faced little resistance. But after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain''s greatest military humiliation of the nineteenth century: an entire army of the then most powerful nation in the world ambushed in retreat and utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen.

Using a range of forgotten Afghan and Indian 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. Return of a King is history at its most urgent and important.

Industry Reviews
This sorry saga has been recounted many times, but never that I can recall as well as by Dalrymple. He is a master story-teller, whose special gift lies in the use of indigenous sources, so often neglected by imperial chroniclers -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
Enchantingly written ... In Dalrymple's usual happy style of historical narrative, applied to a fascinating, neat and highly suggestive series of events, this long and involved book will be a great success, and bring the famous story to a large new audience -- Philip Hensher * Spectator *
Of the books swooped into being by his scholarship (to which he himself has applied the adjective "obsessive"), this one is the most magnificent ... His account is so perceptive and so warmly humane that one is never tempted to break away ... This book would be compulsive reading even if it were not a uniquely valuable history, which it is, because Dalrymple has uncovered sources never used before -- Diana Athill * Guardian *

Other Books By William Dalrymple

The Golden Road : How Ancient India Transformed the World - William Dalrymple
From the Holy Mountain - William Dalrymple

RRP $24.99

$23.75

Koh-i-Noor : History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond - William Dalrymple
Forgotten Masters : Indian Painting for the East India Company - William Dalrymple
City of Djinns : A Year in Delhi - William Dalrymple

RRP $24.99

$24.50

Return of a King : The Battle for Afghanistan - William Dalrymple
Nine Lives : In Search of the Sacred in Modern India - William Dalrymple
The Age of Kali - William Dalrymple

$34.40

The Last Mughal : The Fall of a Delhi, 1857 - William Dalrymple