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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan

Book of the Week: Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan: Episode 3

Factual: History

Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan

Episode 3

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, Episode 3

Shah Shuja has not been back in power long before the Afghans rise up in revolution.

Shah Shuja has been re-established on the throne as the 'puppet king' of the British. But it is not long before the Afghan people rise up, and the calls for jihad begin.

In the spring of 1839, the British invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Led by lancers in scarlet cloaks and plumed shakos, nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk.
On the way in, the British faced little resistance. But, after two years of occupation, the Afghan people rose in answer to the call for jihad and the country exploded into violent rebellion. The First Anglo-Afghan War ended in Britain's greatest military humiliation of the nineteenth century: an entire army of the then most powerful nation in the world ambushed in retreat and utterly routed by poorly equipped tribesmen.
Return of a King is the definitive analysis of the First Afghan War, told through the lives of unforgettable characters on all sides and using for the first time contemporary Afghan accounts of the conflict.
Prize-winning and bestselling historian William Dalrymple's retelling of Britain's greatest imperial disaster is a powerful and important parable of colonial ambition and cultural collision, folly and hubris, for our times.
Read by Tim Pigott-Smith
Written by William Dalrymple
Abridged by Libby Spurrier
Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

William Dalrymple analyses the first Afghan war, 1839-1842. Read by Tim Pigott-Smith

By William Dalrymple. Analysis of the first Afghan war, 1839-1842, told through the lives of characters on all sides and using contemporary Afghan accounts of the conflict. Read by Tim Pigott-Smith

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