This book deals with the most popular period of Awadh/Lucknow History – the 1700s and 1800s.

Part 1 is called: Know Your Nawabs (1722-1856)
Each Chapter is divided into Three Sections.

The First Section, called Chehel Pehel in the Lanes, discusses topics like the East India Company; the Urdu poets; the modes of transport; the birth of commercial printing etc.

The Second Section deals with each successive Ruling Nawab – his Court; his activities, and decisions.

The Third Section, called People Magazine, introduces us to courtiers, musicians, portrait-painters like Johan Zoffany, English women like Sophia Elizabeth Plowden, Anne Dean, Biddy Timms (Mrs. Meer Hasan Ali), and Fanny Parks who wrote a book about her Lucknow life.

Part 2 is called: 1857 and After
It describes the Uprising of 1857 and its consequences – the failed rebellion by Indian soldiers against their British masters, and the end of Nawabi rule.

Part 3 is called: A Death in Matia Burj
The last Nawab, Wajid Ali Shah, accompanied by family members and courtiers, travels to Calcutta to plead his case with the Governor General – without success. His elderly mother travels to England to plead her son’s case before Queen Victoria – a story that ends in tragedy. Months and then years pass by. The refugees from Lucknow, living in rented houses in an area of Calcutta called Matia Burj, try to recreate the life they used to have. In 1887 Nawab Wajid Ali dies and is buried there.

“It is research that is serious and authentic but has the piquancy and lightness of dramatic story writing.” From The Book Review, 7 July 2019. (The Book Review is a peer-reviewed English language academic journal founded in India in January 1976)