by KatherineFrank (Author)
The definitive and first non-partisan biography of one of the most formidable political figures of the 20th-century (voted Woman of the Millennium in a BBC poll, 2000)
Indira Gandhi's life, from her birth in 1917, through partition and up to her assassination in 1984, was dominated by the politics of her country. Always directly involved in India's turbulent 20th-century history, once she accepted the mantle of power, she became one of the world's most powerful and significant women. This biography, the first to be written by an unpartisan, Western woman, will focus on Gandhi's role as a female leader of men in one of the most chauvinistic, complex and politicised cultures in the world.
Comprehensive, yet also personal, Frank's biography will deal with power and how this often isolated woman handled it, alongside her family and her emotional life. It will be the definitive book on one of this century's most powerful and important women.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 608
Edition: New e.
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 04 Oct 2010
ISBN 10: 0006387152
ISBN 13: 9780006387152
`A stunning biography. Indira Gandhi was voted Woman of the Millennium, and yet her story is of a woman pushed into the public eye by men, corrupted by power and assassinated by those she should have trusted best - her own bodyguards.' Jenni Murray, Sunday Times
`Well researched, convincing and impressively fair to its subject.' Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph
`A fascinating account of how an unpromising, if privileged, girl came to lead the world's largest democracy. Anyone who wants to get to the heart of this extraordinary woman (and the extraordinary country which she mothered, cajoled and eventually came to embody), could not do better than read this accomplished book.' Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday
`Moving and revealing.' Victoria Schofield, Financial Times
`An important study...compelling and humanly sympathetic.' Sunil Khilnani, Sunday Telegraph
`An excellent biography.' Geoffrey Moorhouse, Guardian
`A fascinating, rigorous highly readable study.' Caroline Macdonald, Scotsman
Katherine Frank, who was born and educated in the United States, is the author of three acclaimed biographies, of Lucie Duff Gordon, Emily Bronte and Mary Kingsley. She has taught at universities in West Africa and the Middle East as well as Britain. During six years of researching and writing Indira she spent extended periods in India. She now lives in England.