Showing all 6 books
Abdul Karim was 24 years old when he was dispatched from Agra to serve 68-year-old Queen Victoria as an attendant. The tall and handsome Indian Muslim didn't speak a word of English, nor the Empress of India any Urdu. What followed was a relationship of such intimacy and tenderness that the British establishment tried their hardest to destroy all evidence of it. In Victoria and Abdul: The True Story of the Queen's Closest Confidant historian Shrabani Basu ...
Over a million Indian soldiers fought in the First World War, the largest force from the colonies and dominions. Their contribution, however, has been largely forgotten. Many soldiers were illiterate and travelled from remote villages in India to fight in the muddy trenches in France and Flanders. Many went on to win the highest bravery awards.
For King and another Country tells, for the first time, the personal stories of some of these Indians who went to the ...
In 1810, an enterprising Indian called Sake Deen Mahomed opened the Hindostanee Coffee House in London, laying the foundation of a unique British institution the curry house. The curry industry has grown rapidly over the years. There are over 8,500 Indian restaurants in Britain today and London claims to be the curry capital of the world. While chicken tikka masala has been has been officially recognised as a British dish, Britons eat their way through 200 ...
On 13 September 1944, Noor Inayat Khan, the first female wireless operator to be flown into occupied France, was shot at Dachau. The descendant of Tipu Suttan, The Tiger of Mysore, Noor was born in Moscow and raised in the Sufi style of Islam. From this unlikely background she became the only Asian secret agent in Europe in World War II, was one of three women in the SOE to be awarded the George Cross and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. Shrabani Basu’s new ...
With many interesting anecdotes and surprisingly candid insights into the busy scenario of the Indian food business, this book is truly a food lover's delight. A 1997 Gallup poll of British tastes in food showed that curry was beyond doubt the nation's favorite food with over a quarter of Britons eating it at least once a week. The curry revolution has broken down all the bastion of British society. There is now a National Curry Day in Britain and a Curry Club in ...