SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR

Winner of the 1973 Booker Prize, Hilary Mantell said of this novel 'Original and endlessly entertaining, it repays repeated readings.' Krishnapur 1857 - India is on the brink of a violent and bloody mutiny. In this remote town on the vast North Indian plain, life for the British is orderly and genteel, but when the sepoys at the nearest military cantonment rise in revolt, the British community retreats with shock into the Residency. They prepare to fight for their lives with what weapons they can muster. As food and ammunition grow short when the British find themselves under actual siege, the true character of their domination - at once brutal, blundering and wistful - is soon revealed. A superb portrayal of the physical horrors and psychological fallout, the novel is wonderfully funny and written with a devastating wit and rambunctious humanity. Inspired, funny it is ultimately a tragic look at colonialism in India. Paperback, 375pp with Afterword.