In 1823, after relatively undistinguished diplomatic missions to Sicily and China, Lord Amherst (1773 1857) was appointed Governor-general of Bengal, a compromise candidate following Canning's sudden withdrawal to become foreign secretary. Arriving in India, he found the country on the brink of war with Burma, which he was unable to prevent or quickly to resolve, resulting in an expensive and demoralising two-year campaign, and the death of his eldest son. This 1894 biography, written by Anne Thackeray Ritchie (1837 1919), elder daughter of the novelist, and journalist Richardson Evans (1846 1923), was part of a series established by Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840 1900), a former Administrator in the subcontinent. Decidedly flattering in tone and glossing the War as 'a glorious enterprise of arms', this book, which quotes extensively from Lady Amherst's diary and other contemporary sources, is a fascinating example of the late-Victorian presentation of earlier colonial administration.

Anne Thackeray Ritchie (1837-1919) was a writer and the eldest daughter of the novelist W. M. Thackeray. She had a tumultuous childhood: her mother suffered from depression and was eventually committed to a sanatorium, and the family experienced poverty before her father's literary success. Anne was extremely close to her father, who admired her intellect and encouraged her writing. When he died, Anne set up house with her sister Harriet and her brother-in-law, the literary journalist Leslie Stephen. Anne's novels were serialised in the Cornhill Magazine, which her father had edited, and their success established her literary reputation. A Book of Sibyls is Anne's study of four female writers: the poet Anna Laetitia Barbauld and the novelists Amelia Opie, Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=ritcan