Everyone has heard of the Black Hole of Calcutta, but Noel Barber brings the story of that Gehenna vividly to life as it has not been presented for a century. In 1756 came a seige by 50,000 Indians of Fort William, the British East India Company's stronghold. The ensuing events constitute one of the most dramatic episodes of British imperial history, as this graphic and exciting reconstruction shows. Like so much else in history, this was a tragedy of errors in which stupidity, treachery, and fear all played their parts, side by side with the most glowing courage.

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