Patrick French est un auteur et historien britannique dont l'œuvre explore la vie et l'héritage de figures marquantes de l'histoire moderne. Son écriture se caractérise par une recherche historique méticuleuse et une narration captivante qui transporte les lecteurs dans des mondes d'empire, d'aventure et de rencontres culturelles. Il se concentre sur l'exploration des liens complexes entre les individus et les forces plus larges qui façonnent les sociétés et la politique. Le style de French est à la fois érudit et accessible, ce qui en fait un conteur captivant du passé.
Focusing on the life of a controversial Nobel laureate, this biography delves into V.S. Naipaul's relentless pursuit of greatness, revealing the complexities of a writer who prioritized ambition above all else. It explores his enigmatic personality and the impact of his work, offering insights into both his literary contributions and personal struggles. Through detailed analysis, the biography paints a vivid portrait of a man whose legacy continues to provoke discussion and debate.
At midnight on 14 August 1947, Great Britain's 350-year-old Indian Empire was broken into three pieces. The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, and Britain's role as an imperial power came to an end.
This quiz book offers the reader clues to the answers to each question, with questions devised to appeal to the cryptic problem solver. The emphasis is on recent film history with special sections on all time classics such as The Third Man, The Wizard of Oz and Casablanca.
From Calcutta to the snows of the Himalayas, this book pieces together the story of a man who embodies all the romance and folly of Britain's lost imperial dream. It traces the unpredictable life of the maverick with the 'damned rum name', who singlehandedly led the 1904 British invasion of Tibet, discovered a new route from China to India.
A Portrait
Patrick French brings one of the globe's most dynamic nations springing to life ... he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the country, sensitivity to its subtler nuances and a wealth of research. He also arrives with a mischievous sense of humour and a keen eye for the absurd and the bizarre' - Sunday TimesIndia is the biggest democracy on earth, a country of dynamic change, huge divisions and countless identities. Is there any way to discover the 'real' India? In this intimate biography of 1.2 billion people, Patrick French travels all over the country talking to everyone from political leaders to mafia dons, from chained quarry workers to self-made billionaire entrepreneurs, to tell the story of post-independence India as never before. About the AuthorPatrick French is a writer and historian, born in England in 1966. He is the author of Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer, which won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Royal Society of Literature W.H. Heinemann Prize, Liberty or Death: India's Journey to Independence and Division, which won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land and, most recently, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hawthornden Prize.
At midnight on August 14, 1947, Britain's 350-year-old Indian Empire cracked into three pieces. The greatest mass migration in history began, as Muslims fled north and Hindus fled south, over a million being massacred on the way. Britain's role as world power came to an end and the course of Asia's future was irrevocably set. Patrick French offers a reinterpretation of the events surrounding India's independence and partition, including the disastrous mistakes made by politicians and the bizarre reasoning behind many of their decisions. Exploring the interplay between characters such as Churchill, Mountbatten and Gandhi, it reveals a tale of idealism and manipulation, hope and tragedy. With sources ranging from newly declassified secret documents to the memories of refugees, Patrick French gives an account of an epic debacle, the impact of which reverberates across Asia to this day.
He finds a land with a long, warlike past and a complex interlocking relationship with China. He meets victims and perpetrators of Mao's Cultural Revolution, and young nuns who continue the fight against Communist rule. He stays in the tents of nomads, and hears first-hand accounts of the hopeless battle against overwhelmingly superior Chinese forces which ended, in a single day, a way of life which had endured for thousands of years. On his journey, Patrick French is continually sidetracked by a cascade of information, thoughts and reflections on such as how to blind a cabinet minister using a yak's knucklebones, the correct method of travelling across a desert by night, and the reasons for the Dalai Lama's transformation into 'an unknown dark-brown bird, bigger than a normal raven'. Patrick French has found a new way of writing about a place and its history. He fascinatingly illuminates one of the most persistently troubling of international issues, and confirms his reputation as one of the finest writers at work today.
