Calcutta

Classic history of the Victorian seat of the British Raj, setting for the notorious Black Hole where 2 score English settlers diedin an 18th century uprising, and today the 4th largest city in the world. Kipling called it the city of dreadful night - a city of unspeakable poverty, of famine, riot and disease. Yet Calcutta, once the seat of the Raj, is the 2nd city in the commonwealth, the 4th city in the world. Geoffrey Moorhouse's history come travel book, 1st published by Wiedenfeld & Nicolson in 1971, remains the classic account.