Last Mughal

WINNER OF THE DUFF COOPER MEMORIAL PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE

'Indispensable reading on both India and the Empire' Daily Telegraph
'Brims with life, colour and complexity ... outstanding' Evening Standard

On a dark evening in November 1862, a cheap coffin is buried in eerie silence. There are no lamentations or panegyrics, for the British Commissioner in charge has insisted, 'No vesting will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Mughals rests.' This Mughal is Bahadur Shah Zafar II, one of the most tolerant and likeable of his remarkable dynasty who found himself leader of a violent and doomed uprising. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj's Stalingrad, the end of both Mughal power and a remarkable culture.