The author spent time in both Afghanistan and Pakistan during its research and elaborates on the obvious parallels with the current situation,' Barnaby Rogerson in The Independent says ' Return of a King is not just an animated and highly literate retelling of a chapter of early 19th-century British military history, but also a determined attempt to reach out and influence the politicians and policy-makers of our modern world.

Jason Burke's review in The Observer mentions, ' Return of a King is perhaps the most directly relevant to the present day.

The book on publication has received very positive reviews. He used these sources to reconstruct insider accounts of Afghan leaders that are not generally known to British audiences. This allowed him access to epic poems composed right after the First Anglo–Afghan War. Production ĭuring the making of the book, Dalrymple went to Kabul to make use of Afghanistan’s national archives, local secondhand booksellers and remnants of private libraries abandoned by aristocratic owners. It was the first major conflict of The Great Game, a 19th century competition for power and influence in Asia between the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire. The conflict resulted in the near complete destruction of an entire British army, with 4,500 British and Indian soldiers, plus 12,000 of their camp followers dying during a disastrous retreat. Return of a King is an account of the First Anglo–Afghan War, which was fought between the East India Company and Afghanistan.

Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, written by the Scottish historian William Dalrymple and published in 2012, is an account of the First Anglo–Afghan War from 1839 to 1842. Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

Return of a King by William Dalrymple