The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905 - Softcover

'As with William Dalrymple's recent masterly account of the 19th-century invasion of Afghanistan, its relevance today is compelling' Miranda Seymour, The Sunday Times

'Mount relates this remarkable story with a gentle wit, a lightness of touch, a boyish enthusiasm as well as a genius for the telling pen-portrait... It is a remarkable story, and cumulatively amounts to an epic panorama of British Indian history much more substantial than the 'collection of Indian tales, a human jungle book', which Mount modestly describes as his aim in the introduction.' --William Dalrymple, The Spectator

'What [Mount] provides instead is of far greater value: a perceptive antidote to nationalistic prejudicial thinking, and an opportunity for a greater understanding of the aftereffects of British imperialism in some of the world's most troubled regions.' Sunday Times

'Although Tears of the Rajas is replete with stirring tales of adventure, it is a deeply humane book. Mount's heart is at all times with the people of India, whose lives are turned upside down by blundering attempts at modernisation.' The Times

'Mount is a skilled and fluent writer who does his subject justice' --Literary Review

'Mount has produced a gripping and finely nuanced account of the British imperial experience that is, to my mind, unique.' Saul David, Evening Standard

'Mount's even-handed description of this horrific event is the best I have read and a fitting conclusion to this splendid history' Independent

'In The Tears of the Rajas, this scion of empire provides a warts-and-all account of his ancestry's involvement in India' Prospect

'Wonderfully detailed, fascinating, intelligent and level-headed history of a century of empire...' The Scotsman

'Impressively researched ... eminently readable ... epic account of the British in 19th-century India.' --David Goodall, Country Life

Ferdinand Mount was born in 1939. For many years he was a columnist at the Spectator and then the Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. In between, he was head of the Downing Street Policy Unit and then editor of the Times Literary Supplement. He is now a prize-winning novelist, author of the bestselling memoir Cold Cream, and most recently the controversial The New Few. He lives in London.