{"product_id":"barefoot-emperor","title":"Barefoot Emperor","description":"\u003cp\u003eA fascinating narrative excursion into a bizarre episode in 19th century Ethiopian and British imperial history featuring a remote African despot and his monstrous European-built gun.\u003c\/p\u003e\n          \u003cp\u003eOn one of Addis Ababa's main roundabouts today sits a huge recently installed mortar. This is a replica of 'Sevastopol', a 70-ton lump of ordnance commissioned by one of the most extraordinary leaders Africa has ever produced – King of Kings of Ethiopia, the Emperor Theodore. In 1867, as his kingdom collapsed around him, Theodore retreated to his mountain-top stronghold in Magdala. It took his army six months to haul 'Sevastopol' through the gauges and passes of the highlands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n          \u003cp\u003eSixty miles to the north, a British expeditionary force under Sir Robert Napier – consisting of more than 10,000 fighting men, at least as many followers and 20,000 pack-animals, including a number of Indian elephants – had been ferried to the Red Sea Coast and built a railway line through the desert. Their object: to rescue the British consul and sixty Europeans, held prisoner by the increasingly erratic Theodore, who had taken to massacring his prisoners-of-war and pitching captives over the cliffs of Magdala.\u003c\/p\u003e\n          \u003cp\u003eThe resulting fate of Theodore and his mortar forms the climax to this strange extravaganza, in which an isolated medieval kingdom came dramatically face-to-face with an ascendant Europe. Philip Marsden tells the tale with all his proven narrative skill, deep love and first hand knowledge of Ethiopia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54252608913752,"sku":"9780007173464","price":18.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780007173464.jpg?v=1750173338","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/barefoot-emperor","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}