The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj - Hardcover

Anand, Anita

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1471174212 ISBN 13: 9781471174216

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2019

Synopsis

'Reads like something from a thriller...colourful, detailed and meticulously researched' Sunday Times
‘Gripping from start to finish' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
'Remarkable and brilliantly researched non-fiction thriller...focussing on one extraordinary story that had never been properly told before' William Dalrymple, Spectator

Anita Anand tells the remarkable story of one Indian's twenty-year quest for revenge, taking him around the world in search of those he held responsible for the Amritsar massacre of 1919, which cost the lives of hundreds. 

When Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, ordered Brigadier General Reginald Dyer to Amritsar, he wanted him to bring the troublesome city to heel. Sir Michael had become increasingly alarmed at the effect Gandhi was having on his province, as well as recent demonstrations, strikes and shows of Hindu-Muslim unity. All these things, in Sir Michael's mind at least, were a precursor to a second Indian Mutiny. What happened next shocked the world. An unauthorised political gathering in the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919 became the focal point for Sir Michael's law enforcers. Dyer marched his soldiers into the walled garden, filled with thousands of unarmed men, women and children, blocking the only exit. Then, without issuing any order to disperse, he instructed his men to open fire, turning their guns on the thickest parts of the crowd. For ten minutes, they continued firing, stopping only when 1650 bullets had been fired. Not a single shot was fired in retaliation. 

According to legend, a young, low-caste orphan, Udham Singh, was injured in the attack, and remained in the Bagh, surrounded by the dead and dying until he was able to move the next morning. Then, he supposedly picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth, smeared it across his forehead and vowed to kill the men responsible, no matter how long it took.

The truth, as the author has discovered, is more complex but no less dramatic. She traced Singh's journey through Africa, the United States and across Europe before, in March 1940, he finally arrived in front of O'Dwyer in a London hall ready to shoot him down. The Patient Assassin shines a devastating light on one of the Raj's most horrific events, but reads like a taut thriller, and reveals some astonishing new insights into what really happened. 

About this title

Review:

'Reads like something from a thriller...colourful, detailed and meticulously researched account...the book really shines in evoking the fevered atmosphere of India in the late 1910s and early 1920s.' (Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times)

'Anita Anand’s remarkable and brilliantly researched non-fiction thriller, The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj, [is] well-written, contains new research and breaks much fresh ground... Anita Anand focuses on one extraordinary story that had never been properly told before. Through some remarkable research in archives around the world, Anand has reconstructed much of [Udham Singh's] life.' (William Dalrymple Spectator)

'Ms. Anand’s narrative is vividly realized in the face of her subject’s hazy, underground existence... [Her] "Patient Assassin" mixes Tom Ripley’s con-man-for-all-seasons versatility with Edmond Dantès’s persistence...Engaging reading.' (Wall Street Journal)

‘Gripping from start to finish. Anita Anand is a brilliant guide who brings a series of extraordinary – and important – stories to life in this remarkable history.’ (Peter Frankopan Author of The Silk Roads)

'An excellent and important book' (Mishal Husain BBC Radio 4 Today Programme)

'A jaw-dropping true story...Udham Singh [survived] the massacre [at Amritsar] and swore vengeance. Like a real-life Tom Ripley, he assumed multiple identities and bided his time...and shot the former governor of the Punjab through the heart at point-blank range. Rough justice; brutally poetic.' (Richard Madeley Spectator)

'Briskly plotted, scrupulously even-handed and altogether riveting' (John Preston Daily Mail)

‘An astonishing story, brilliantly told.’ (Dan Snow)

'Anand has turned her meticulous investigative journalism to tracking the life of the formerly shadowy Singh... [she] lures us into an irresistible narrative. It is an engaging story that reads satisfyingly more like a shadow world conspiracy thriller than the exhaustively researched piece of reconstruction that it is.' (Rachel Holmes Daily Telegraph)

'Fabulous book' (Jeremy Vine)

About the Author:

Anita Anand is a political journalist who has presented television and radio programmes on the BBC for twenty years. She currently presents Any Answers on Radio 4. She is the author of Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary and, with William Dalrymple, Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond. She lives with her husband and two children in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1471174212
• ISBN 13: 9781471174216
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384