The Prince and the Plunder

by Andrew Heavens

ISBN: 9780750997362

Published: 2023

Part revisionist history, part treasure hunt, this is the forgotten story of Ethiopia's 'Elgin Marbles' and a young prince taken out of Africa to live in Victorian Britain 'Extraordinary and thrilling ... This story should be known to every man, woman and child' LEMN SISSAY, author, My Name Is Why In 1868, British troops charged into the mountain empire of Ethiopia, stormed the citadel of its monarch Tewodros II and grabbed piles of his treasures and sacred manuscripts. They also took his son - six-year-old Prince Alamayu - and brought the boy back with them to the cold shores of England. For the first time, Andrew Heavens tells the whole story of Alamayu, from his early days in his father's fortress on the roof of Africa to his new home across the seas, where he charmed Queen Victoria, chatted with Lord Tennyson and traveled with his towering red-headed guardian Captain Speedy. The orphan prince was celebrated but stereotyped and never allowed to go home. The book also follows the...