The Proudest Day
Anthony Read, David Fisher
  • Published: 25 September 1998
  • ISBN: 9780712661423
  • Imprint: Pimlico
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 592
  • RRP: $42.00
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The Proudest Day

India's Long Road to Independencre

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A vivid, colourful and fast-paced account of the events leading up to an Indian independence in 1947.

At midnight on 14 August 1947, Britain finally granted independence to the peoples of India. Throughout the world, the end of the colonial era was in sight. India was the first great domino to fall, setting off a train of events that was so spread across Asia and Africa, culminat-ing in the collapse of th Soviet empire. The story of the winning of freedom by the peoples of the Indian empire is one of the great sagas of the twentieth century. Bathed in the rosy glow of retrospect, the birth of modern India and Pakistan has come to be guarded in the West as a great achievement, `the proudest day in Britain`s history', as predicted by Lord Macauley in 1835. But how justified is the romantic popular image? Was Indian independence a noble gesture by abenevolent colonial power or was freedom wrested from the British by indian nationalists after more than a quarter of a century of bitter struggle? Was the result a triumph or a tragedy? The Proudest Day sets the record straight.
  • Published: 25 September 1998
  • ISBN: 9780712661423
  • Imprint: Pimlico
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 592
  • RRP: $42.00
Categories:
Share…

About the authors

Anthony Read

Anthony Read became a full-time writer after a successful career in television production. He is the author of The Devil's Disciples (Cape, 2003) and has co-written a number of books with David Fisher, including Berlin: The Biography of a City, The Fall of Berlin, The Proudest Day: India's Long Road to Independence (both available from Pimlico), Operation Lucy, Colonel Z, The Deadly Embrace and Kristallnacht, for which they were awarded the H. H. Wingate Prize in 1989.

David Fisher

David Fisher was approached by script editor Anthony Read to write for Doctor Who and the result was the 100th story, The Stones of Blood, transmitted in 1978. Fisher first met Read when the latter was setting up a series called The Troubleshooters in 1965. Fisher went on to write for Orlando (1967), Dixon of Dock Green (1969), Sutherland's Law (1973) and General Hospital (1977). As well as The Stones of Blood, Fisher also contributed The Androids of Tara, The Creature from the Pit and The Leisure Hive to Doctor Who. The first two stories were novelised by Terrance Dicks, but Fisher decided to pen the latter two himself for the Target range.

Following his work on Doctor Who, Fisher wrote for Hammer House of Horror (1980), Hammer Mystery and Suspense (1984) and collaborated with Read on a number of historical books with subjects including World War Two espionage, the Nazi persecution of Jews and the Nazi/Soviet pact of the early 1940s.

Praise for The Proudest Day

A thoroughly splendid history of an exceedingly complicated subject...Read and fisher review events before the 20th century at a brisk pace, as a prologue to the great drama spread across three quarters of their book...and as the narrative proceeds towards the final act at midnight on 14 August 1947, so it becomes more scholarly. the characteristics of the principal cast are memorably presented

Geoffrey Moorhouse, Daily Telegraph

What Indians needed in their golden jubilee year was some good old personality-driven political history of the Raj...and that is exactly what Read and Fisher have done...They have made the most eventful years of our history as fascinating as they should be

Indian Sunday Express

The narrative goes beyond the chronicling of historical fact and assumes a quality of subtle story-telling. It is well-paced, intelligent and perceptive, scripted with a measure of the assurance that bridges the best of fiction and non-fiction writing. More importantly, there is love and sympathy for its subject, a human quality is achieved only when the text goes beyond mere documentation. The quality of writing - its pungency and sense of theatre - is matched by the rigorousness of the research...One of the profound epic tales of modern world history

Financial Times