Last King in India

The book under review is a testimony to Rosie Llewellyn-Jones passion for the culture of Lucknow. Like a work of fiction, this well-researched historical biography uses graphic descriptions and meticulous details while constructing the scenes and analysing the personalities of nineteenth century India. It is a tale of a king who was forced to flee his kingdom, despite being compliant to the British East India Company. This work brings out a balanced alternative account of a king who has been for long pictured as both incompetent and hedonistic: the epitome of the high culture of Lucknow. The incident of the annexation of Awadh constitutes the backdrop of the book and provides details of the political and cultural life of a kingdom that ceased to exist formally after the British annexation, but which lived on for another three decades until the death of its king. The work also dwells in detail on how the East India Company and the British government dealt the exiled King Wajid Ali Shah.