SIEGE OF KRISHNAPUR

Winner of the 1973 Booker Prize, this is an "idiosyncratic masterpiece" in the words of Hilary Mantel. Krishnapur 1857. India is on the brink of a violent and bloody mutiny. In this remote town in the vast North Indian plain, life for the British is still orderly and genteel, but when the sepoys at the nearest military cantonment rise in revolt, the British community retreats with shock into their 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. Wonderfully funny and written with a devastating wit and rambunctious humanity, the novel is a superb portrayal of physical horrors and psychological fallout, and although part of a series of three, can be read alone. 375pp, paperback.