The King in Exile: The Fall of the Royal Family of Burma
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Sudha Shah
HarperCollins
480 pages, R799
After a war with Britain in 1885, the Burmese King Thibaw and Queen Supayalat lost their kingdom and were exiled to Ratnagiri in British India. After the death of the king, the queen and their four daughters were permitted to return to Burma in 1919, where the youngest daughter eventually made a dramatic bid for her father’s kingdom. Meticulously researched and supplemented with photographs and illustrations, this is an engrossing story of this forgotten family.
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