THE LAST PRINCE OF BENGAL

Publisher: London: Westbourne Press, 2021, 250pp. ISBN: 9781908906465.

Lyn Innes’ The Last Prince of Bengal is an authoritative and wide-ranging account of the decisive Indian impact on modern Britain. Her ancestor, His Royal Highness, Sayyid Mansur [Ali Khan (1830 –1884), the last Nawab Nizam of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, governed a kingdom that stretched from the mouth of the Ganges river to the Himalayas, a realm three times the size of Great Britain. Consequently, this is a story that arcs across Asia, Australia, the Americas, Britain and Europe. It constitutes an excellent, dramatic read and will appeal to people who have enjoyed The White Mughals by William Dalrymple (2002).

The book is broken into two sections. Part 1 focuses on the Nawab, his biography and career. This is predicated on numerous official documents and newspaper reports. Part 2 explores the complex lives of his descendants through his English wife, through to the author. This is based on personal papers, letters, diaries, family memories and photograph albums. The book reveals much of rigid and petty attitudes, priorities and policies towards matters of class, race and religion in Australia, Britain and India over the 1880s to the 1930s.