The Siege of Krishnapur – JG Farrell

It is the start of 1857 and at Krishnapur, a two day ride from Calcutta, the English Raj are preserving their societal customs as best they can under foreign skies and a punishing climate. The poetry society is in session. Mr Hopkins, the top man, who bears the title of Collector, is reviewing his eclectic collection of items of art, science, and technology, some recently brought back from his visit to the Great Exhibition in London.

In Calcutta, the bright young things - epitomised by Lieutenant Harry Dunstable, his sister Louise, and newly arrived from Britain, George Fleury and his sister Miriam, who is already a widow – are at play with dances, outings, and picnics. But soon they decamp to Krishnapur where Harry and Louise’s father is resident doctor. On arrival they meet the pretty but disgraced and deserted Lucy Hughes, whom they befriend despite her tainted reputation.

It is not the best time to be in Krishnapur. There is unrest in the Indian army, mutiny is threatened. The Collector decides to strengthen the residency’s defences. Just in time, as the sepoys attack in force. The defences hold for now, but the siege begins.

Under the growing pressure what will happen? Will standards of civilised behaviour hold up? Will the Collector and his minimal forces be up to the task of defending the residency? Will the two doctors, Dunstable and McNab resolve their professional differences and work together to patch wounds and combat dysentery? Will the spiritual leads, Reverend Hampton and Father O’Hara keep the faith, despite their God’s seeming indifference to their plight and the atheistic jibes from magistrate Tom Willoughby? Will George’s and Harry’s romantic interests, and indeed the charms of the young ladies, survive the rigours of the siege? All is eventually revealed.

The pace of the novel and style of prose neatly mirror that of events, beginning rather stiff and formal, becoming languid during the siege, and then frenetic during the chaotic (and surprisingly funny) climax.

Despite its 1973 Booker prizewinning credentials (rarely a good sign), a really good read that, though slow to grip, increasingly entertains as it progresses.