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Books

The King of Kings and I: Haile Selassie, by his great nephew

Asfa-Woosen Aserate’s even-handed account of Haile Selassie’s successful autocracy is that precious thing: an African history written by an insider

29 October 2015

9:00 AM

29 October 2015

9:00 AM

King of Kings: The Triumph and Tragedy of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia Asfa-Woosen Asserate, translated by Peter Lewis

Haus Publishing, pp.374, £20, ISBN: 9781910376140

Great men rarely come smaller than Haile Selassie. In photographs, the golden crowns, pith helmets and grey felt homburgs he often donned can’t conceal the fact that he is the shortest man in the room. It didn’t matter: for the 44 years of his reign — with a five-year interruption engineered by Benito Mussolini’s invading troops — he was effectively lord of all he surveyed.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £18 Tel: 08430 600033. Michela Wrong’s recent debut novel, Borderlines, is a courtroom drama set in Africa.

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