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Return of a King

The Battle for Afghanistan

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Return of a King

By: William Dalrymple
Narrated by: Sagar Arya
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Bloomsbury presents Return of a King by William Dalrymple, read by Sagar Arya.

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.©2013 William Dalrymple (P)2021 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Europe Great Britain Middle East Military Royalty Middle Ages Imperialism
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Critic 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)
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)
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)
Brilliant . . . Those who have read his White Mughals and The Last Mughal will know what to expect: a readable style, a deep humanity and, above all, an extraordinary skill in evoking the lost worlds of Mughals and Afghans . . . His pen-portraits are a masterpiece . . . Return of a King is much the fullest and most powerful description of the West's first encounter with Afghan society (John Darwin)
A major contribution to the historiography of south-west Asia and of the British empire . . . Return of a King will come to be seen as the definitive account of the first and most disastrous western attempt to invade Afghanistan. Dalrymple's afterword should be put on college syllabuses on both sides of the Atlantic (Sherard Cowper-Coles)
Splendid and absorbing . . . William Dalrymple tells this tragic story with verve, skill, and - unexpectedly in the circumstances - some humor. Using unknown or underused sources from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, he recounts the tale from both sides, shifting the scenes, using eyewitness accounts, quoting at length heroic epic poems . . . A fine book (David Gilmour)
William Dalrymple is a master storyteller, who breathes such passion, vivacity and animation into the historical characters of the First Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-42 that at the end of this 567-page book you feel you have marched, fought, dined and plotted with them all: once I had finished I turned straight back to the beginning
Brilliant . . . even 170 years later, the events described in Return of a King still have the power to shock - and so they should. It is to be hoped that any future British leader contemplating intervention in Afghanistan, or any other part of the Muslim world, will read Dalrymple's book
All stars
Most relevant
Brilliant narration and a great account. I feel for all Afghans and Afghanistan, they just want and deserve honesty and a fair chance.

A great account

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The book goes into very detailed analysis of historical events based on actual recorded historcal correpondence... I found the parts about Ramjith Singh and Kohinoor to be adding even more depth to the story. recommended!

Thorough and still entertaining

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A fabulously researched book brought to life by a great selection of narrator. For some reason this is not a well known event (obviously from a brit point of view) but should be. So many lessons to be learnt especially for operating in more tribal countries

A must listen for Britains

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For anyone interested in early 19th Century history, the history of the Great Game, history of Afghanistan or the British in India this is a must have. Well researched & an excellent story in which the author went to extreme lengths to understand the history & appreciate Afghani society & culture. I recommend this book.

Excellent and Well Researched

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An excellent book! Worth a read. The author has based the work on lots of research and evidence. And he lays this down in a very readable an flowing style.

An excellent read!

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