Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, MBE, is a British historian with expertise on Lucknow and its culture. Based in London, where she worked for the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, she is a regular visitor to Lucknow. Her other books include A Very Ingenious Man: Claude Martin in Early Colonial India (1999), Engaging Scoundrels: True Tales of Old Lucknow (2000), and The Last King in India: Wajid Ali Shah (2014).

Lucknow was once described as “the last example of the old pomp and refinement of Hindustan”. Both culturally and architecturally it remains one of the most interesting cities of North India.

Besides touching on the political aspects of nawabi rule in the province of Awadh, this book discusses the ethos and architecture of Lucknow in its heyday: between the period of the first nawab in the early eighteenth century, and the last nawab who was deposed by the British in 1856.

This new edition of the most scholarly – and most readable – work on the history of nawabi Lucknow includes black-and-white photos from the first edition as well as many new photos in colour.