COPYRIGHT

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

      The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      Fourth Estate

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Published by Fourth Estate 2016

      First published in Great Britain by

      Flamingo 2002

      Copyright © Philip Hensher 2002

      Philip Hensher asserts the moral right to be

      identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780007112265

      EBook Edition © JULY 2012 ISBN 9780007406821 Version: 2016-08-08

DEDICATION

      For Laurent Rodriguez

      C’est toi d’abord, ô bien-aimé,

       M’apportant avec ta gaité

       Dorénavant douce, I’armée

       Des victorieux procédés

      Par quoi tu m’as toujours dompté,

       Conseil juste, forte bonté …

      VERLAINE

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Bella

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

       Seven

       Eight

       Burnes

       Nine

       Ten

       Eleven

       Twelve

       Thirteen

       Fourteen

       Fifteen

       Sixteen

       Seventeen

       Eighteen

       Nineteen

       Twenty

       Anthropological Interlude

       Akbar

       Twenty-One

       Twenty-Two

       Twenty-Three

       Twenty-Four

       Twenty-Five

       Twenty-Six

       Twenty-Seven

       Epilogue

       Bibliography