The Book Prize Index

Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan

William Dalrymple

A towering history of the first Afghan War by bestselling historian William Dalrymple In the spring of 1839, the British invaded Afghanistan for the first time. Led by lancers in scarlet cloaks and plumed shakos, nearly 20,000 British and East India Company troops poured through the high mountain passes and re-established on the throne Shah Shuja ul-Mulk. On the way in, the British faced little resistance.

War & MilitaryWar & Military · medium confidenceWar & Military81 signalsLlm Classifier: War & Military -> War & MilitaryGoogle Books: History -> HistoryKeyword Classifier: Travel & Place -> Travel & PlaceSoldiers, Veterans & Combat ExperienceWar & Military StrategyVietnam War

Award History

0 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-FictionMajor2013FinalistSecondary source
PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize: Historical Nonfiction2014ShortlistSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    • Afghanistan90%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    45 / 100 academic

    Trade / academic crossover

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 62%.