Böcker av Anita Anand

Readslike something from a thrillercolourful, detailed and meticulously researched Sunday Times';Gripping from start to finish Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk RoadsRemarkable and brilliantly researched non-fiction thriller...focussing on one extraordinary story that had never been properly told before William Dalrymple, SpectatorAnita Anand tells the remarkable story of one Indians twenty-year quest for revenge, taking him around the world in search of those he held responsible for the Amritsar massacre of 1919, which cost the lives of hundreds. When Sir Michael ODwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, ordered Brigadier General Reginald Dyer to Amritsar, he wanted him to bring the troublesome city to heel. Sir Michael had become increasingly alarmed at the effect Gandhi was having on his province, as well as recent demonstrations, strikesand shows of Hindu-Muslim unity. All these things, in Sir Michaels mind at least,were a precursor to a second Indian Mutiny. What happened next shocked the world. An unauthorised political gathering in the JallianwalaBagh in Amritsar in April 1919became the focal point for Sir Michaels law enforcers. Dyer marched his soldiers into the walled garden, filled with thousands of unarmed men, women and children, blocking theonly exit. Then, without issuing any order to disperse,he instructed his men to open fire, turning their guns on the thickest parts of the crowd. For ten minutes, they continued firing, stopping only when 1650 bullets had been fired. Not a single shot was fired in retaliation. According to legend, a young, low-caste orphan,Udham Singh, was injured in the attack, and remained in the Bagh, surrounded by the dead and dying until he was able to move the next morning. Then, he supposedly picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth, smeared it across his forehead and vowed to kill the men responsible, no matter how long it took. The truth, as the author has discovered, is more complex but no less dramatic. She traced Singhs journey through Africa, the United States and across Europe before, in March 1940, he finally arrived in front of ODwyer in a London hall ready to shoot him down. The Patient Assassin shines a devastating light on one of the Rajs most horrific events, but reads like a taut thriller, and reveals some astonishing new insights into what really happened.

**By the presenter of the hit podcast EMPIRE**'Sophia is the sort of remarkable, almost unbelievable untold true story that every writer dreams of chancing upon. A wonderful debut, written with real spirit and gusto. Anita Anand has produced a winner' William Dalrymple'A fascinating and elegantly written life of one of the unknown giants of women's suffrage' Katie Hickman, author of Daughters of BritanniaThe enthralling story of an extraordinary woman and her part in the defining moments of recent British Indian historyWinner of the Eastern Eye Alchemy Festival Award for LiteratureIn 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into royalty. Her father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, was heir to the Kingdom of the Sikhs, a realm that stretched from the lush Kashmir Valley to the craggy foothills of the Khyber Pass and included the mighty cities of Lahore and Peshawar. It was a territory irresistible to the British, who plundered everything, including the fabled Koh-I-Noor diamond. Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharajah transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace, its grounds stocked with leopards, monkeys and exotic birds. Sophia, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded grace-and-favour lodgings at Hampton Court Palace and photographed wearing the latest fashions for the society pages. But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she travelled to India, she returned a revolutionary.Sophia transcended her heritage to devote herself to battling injustice and inequality,a far cry from the life to which she was born. Her causes were the struggle for Indian independence, the fate of the Lascars, the welfare of Indian soldiers in the First World War - and, above all, the fight for female suffrage. She was bold and fearless, attacking politicians, putting herself in the front line and swapping her silks for a nurse's uniform to tend wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefields. Meticulously researched and passionately written, this enthralling story of the rise of women and the fall of empire introduces an extraordinary individual and her part in the defining moments of recent British and Indian history.