Author:David Gilmour
In 1900 just over a thousand British civil servants ruled a population of nearly 300 million people spread over a territory now covered by India, Pakistan, Burma and Bangladesh. In its time, the Indian Civil Service was regarded as efficient, benevolent and incorruptible, but revisionist historians have recently questioned its competence and derided its altruism.
In this absorbing, extensively researched new book, David Gilmour traces the lives of its officials, from recruitment to retirement, from jungle to Government House, from a bungalow in Burma to a residency in Rajputana. He describes their work and their leisure, their intellectual and their private lives. The result is a portrait more varied and complicated than that painted by their old admirers, and yet fairer and subtler than those routinely produced by their post-colonial detractors.
Beautifully written and endlessly diverting... Excellent
—— Denis Judd , Times Literary SupplementA book that is not only informative, but also lucid, witty, and extremely well-written
—— Daily TelegraphBased on stunningly exhaustive research in official archives and family papers, and written with tremendous wit, style and sense of pace, Gilmour's book is a masterful account of British life in India. If you have ever wondered what it would have been like to run the Raj, The Ruling Caste has all the answers.
—— Dominic Sandbrook , ScotsmanGilmour is the perfect companion to Victorian India - shrewd, funny, always a joy to read. He writes lean, elegant prose and wears his learning lightly... In David Gilmour, the British in India have at last found the historian they deserve. This is a marvellous book
—— Jane Ridley , SpectatorMasterly and fascinating
—— Sunday TimesExceptional... A joy to read
—— Literary ReviewElegant and iconic
—— William Dalrymple , New Statesman, Christmas BooksLearned, thoughtful and beautifully written... it conveys brilliantly and vividly the strange quality of these individuals' lives
—— Linda Colley , The NationAuthoritative and scholarly
—— Sunday TelegraphEvenhanded, carefully researched and elegantly written
—— Peter Parker , Times Literary Supplement, Books of the YearA treasure trove of information from the serious to the trivial
—— Geoffrey WheatcroftMammoth…beguiling…intriguing…vivid…engrossing
—— ScotsmanTruly, he has written London’s biography. I began rereading it as soon as I finished, and I urge you to read it as soon as possible, so that you can begin rereading it as well
—— Will Self , New StatesmanA fat and filling feast: pretty much everything of interest about the capital is crammed into the eight-hundred pages. One cannot but marvel at Ackroyd’s erudition, his energy in marshalling minutiae, his ear for quotation, his flair for dazzling juxtapositions, his vibrant imagination and sheer exuberance
—— The TimesAn erudite labour of love, a fan-letter to a fabulous city, and a book one suspects Ackroyd was destined to write. It illuminates the English character, and is darkly humorous in its detail, tumbling through centuries crowded with legendary events and eccentric observations, as exuberant, energetic and alarming as the city itself
—— Independent on SundayA masterpiece
—— Evening StandardSpellbinding
—— Express on SundayA sharp, beautifully written but above all truthful account of London…This is the kind of writing that gives intellectuals a good name
—— Sunday Tribune
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