Probably the first authoritative study of one of the most colourful characters in Indian history Farzana tells the rags-to-riches story of one of the most colourful characters in Indian history. In a life spanning the chaotic years between the collapse of the Mughal empire and advent of the British, this child of the streets beguiled her way to command of a private army, confidante of the emperor and ruler of the most progressive principality in northern India. Her troops often held the ba...

Amongst the riches of nineteenth century India, as the British fought their way across Mughal territory, an orphaned streetgirl ends up at court with the ear of the Emperor. That girl was Farzana, and she would become a courtesan, a leader of armies, a treasured defender of the last Mughal emperor and the head of one of the most legendary courts in history. In this beautifully written book, the author's last, Julia Keay weaves a story which spans the Indian continent and the end of a golde...

‘There is no one-volume book in print that carries so much valuable information on London and its history’ Illustrated London NewsThe London Encyclopaedia is the most comprehensive book on London ever published. In its first new edition in over ten years, completely revised and updated, it comprises some 6,000 entries, organised alphabetically, cross-referenced and supported by two large indexes – one for the 10,000 people mentioned in the text and one general – a...

The tall, handsome Abdul Karim was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. An assistant clerk at Agra Central Jail, he suddenly found himself a personal attendant to the Empress of India herself. Within a year, he was established as a powerful figure at court, becoming the queen's teacher, or Munshi, and instructing her in Urdu and Indian affairs. Devastated by the death of John Brown, her Sc...

Before he was the Prime Minister of England, and before he was even in Parliament, Winston Churchill was a soldier, stationed first in India and then in Sudan. His early years in the British army form the background for this historical work, which is actually his second published book. Written in 1899, it is an account of Britain's re-conquest of the Sudan, providing a description of the British conflict led by Lord Kitchener against Islamic Jihadists set to conquer Egypt and drive out inf...

The British historian and author of Into India delivers "a history that is intelligent, incisive, and eminently readable" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review).Fully revised with forty thousand new words that take the reader up to present-day India, John Keay's India: A History spans five millennia in a sweeping narrative that tells the story of the peoples of the subcontinent, from their ancient beginnings in the valley of the Indus to the e...

First published in 1887. Acording to the Preface: "The rise and meridian of the Moghul Empire have been related in Elphinstone's " History of India: the Hindu and Mahometan Period; " and a Special Study of the subject will Also be found in the " Sketch of the History of Hindustan" published by the present writer in 1885. Neither of those works, however, undertakes to give a detailed account of the great Anarchy that marked the conclusion of the eighteenth century, the dark time that came b...

A "well-researched" account of the nineteenth-century Sudanese cleric who led a bloody holy war, from a New York Times-bestselling author ( Publishers Weekly).Before bin Laden, al-Zarqawi, or Ayatollah Khomeini, there was the Mahdi—the "Expected One"—who raised the Arabs in pan-tribal revolt against infidels and apostates in Sudan.Born on the Nile in 1844, Muhammed Ahmed grew into a devout, charismatic young man, whose visage was said to h...

Until 1912 Morocco had never suffered foreign domination, and its mountainous interior was as closed to foreigners as Tibet. Walter Harris was the exception. He lived in the country for more than thirty-five years, and as The Times correspondant he observed every aspect of its life. He describes the unfettered Sultanate in all its dark, melodramatic splendour. Harris was an intimate of at least three of the ruling Sultans and a man capable of befriending even his kidnapper. Included in thi...

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh, and the Delhi region. The rebellion posed a considerable threat to Company power in that region, and was contained only with the fall of Gwalior on 2...

A picture of life and customs from the sixteenth century, centred around Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor of the Mughal dynasty in India, one of the most powerful empires of the time which covered the majority of northern and central India. It it is a fascinating read for any enthusiast or historian of India.

This is an astonishing true tale of espionage, journeys in disguise, secret messages, double agents, assassinations and sexual intrigue. Alexander Burnes was one of the most accomplished spies Britain ever produced and the main antagonist of the Great Game as Britain strove with Russia for control of Central Asia and the routes to the Raj. There are many lessons for the present day in this tale of the folly of invading Afghanistan and Anglo-Russian tensions in the Caucasus. Murray's meticu...