Back at the beginning of August, I used my summer holidays to play ‘tourist’ in London. My first stop was the Tower of London and, among the ravens, armour and tales of bloody executions, I popped in to see the Crown Jewels. At that point I was already aware of this new history of the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond and wanted to see it for myself. I discovered, as many have before me, that its legend casts a far larger shadow than its reality. Indeed, it looks almost modest alongside the Cullinan I Diamond that sits atop the monarch’s sceptre, or the Cullinan II in the Imperial State Crown. So what was it about this rather unassuming diamond that captured the imagination of generations? With Dalrymple and Anand as my guides, I embarked on an engaging tale of blood, war, ambition, extravagance and conquest...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2018/01/24/koh-i-noor-william-dalrymple-and-anita-anand... ( )

Split into Two Parts and each part written by one of the two authors, this is an engaging book. The fable of the diamond is very well chronicled and it was breezy read. ( )

i thought this would be a mere recounting of how the precious stone got into proud british hands. the fakeer purn puri's meeting with ahmad shah durrani, the maggots falling from his decaying nose into his food, the funeral of ranjith singh where the practice of satee reveals itself to the recounting austro-hungarian ambassador?, the entire life of duleep singh and the continuing farce of afghanistan, pakistan and india trying to get back the diamond from british hands were memorable :) ( )

I rattled through this book in no time at all which was a great pity as I enjoyed every page. A narrative history of one of history's most famous precious stones and which through this book you share in its journey through the rise and fall of empires, often violent changes of ownership and then into the possession of the British crown. Thoroughly enjoyable ( )

In 1849 a 10-year child was forced to sign over his life to the British as they annexed the Punjab. Duleep Singh was the last of the Maharajas, heir to the great Indian empire that had gone from glory to defeat in fifty years. As part of the great wealth gained by the British there was the Koh-inoor, the Mountain of Light, the most valuable diamond known. This book tells the story of the stone from discovery, through veneration in India and currently to being part of the British Crown Jewels.

The Koh-i-noor is well-known, a stunning diamond with a supposed curse attached to it, this book aims to tell the story of the diamond by putting it into context with Indian, Colonial and modern history. The book is written in two parts by two different authors. The first section is by William Dalrymple and covers the time up to the reign of Ranjit Singh, the last great ruler. Anita Anand takes over for the fall of the Indian empire and the removal of the gem to England. This works quite well as Dalrymple, a passionate Indian historian builds the romance around the stone and weaves in fact and fiction beautifully. Anand has to deal far more with hard facts and knowledge and does this well, notably in the story of Duleep Singh and also the cutting of the stone. The book is not overly demanding but is enjoyable. ( )