Return of a King is history at its most urgent and important. William Dalrymple Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42 Kindle Edition by William Dalrymple (Author) Format: Kindle Edition 1,645 ratings Editors' pick Best History See all formats and editions Kindle 14.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0. 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.

The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain's greatest military humiliation of the 19th century: an entire army of the then most powerful nation in the world ambushed in retreat and utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen. But after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. On the way in, the British faced little resistance. 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.

In the spring of 1839, Britain invaded Afghanistan for the first time. On 13 November 2014, British historian and writer William Dalrymple discussed his book, Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan 1838-42, in a Dean of Faculty-Rector's Tea talk at Yale-NUS. His latest offering, Return of a King, is a tale of imperial plotting and folly in a region that has suffered from every sort of indignity and tragedy at the. Shortlisted for The Samuel Johnson Prize 2013 Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, written by the Scottish historian William Dalrymple and published in 2012, is an account of the First. Bloomsbury presents Return of a King by William Dalrymple, read by Sagar Arya.