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Home / People / Robert Clive

Historical person

Robert Clive

1725–1774

Clive travelled to India as an East India Company clerk and entered its military service during conflict with French and Indian forces. His defence of Arcot and his role in the Battle of Plassey made him one of the principal architects of the Company's political and military expansion.

He twice served as governor in Bengal and returned to Britain with a large fortune, attracting parliamentary scrutiny and lasting controversy over conquest, wealth extraction and Company government. Historical fiction should avoid treating later British rule as an inevitable or uncomplicated consequence of his campaigns.

In Alex Rutherford’s Fortune’s Soldier, in a world of commercial rivalry and fragile alliances, he befriends the ambitious Robert Clive and learns that advancement depends as much on political judgement as on courage. In Colin Falconer’s An Ambush of Tigers, as Robert Clive and the East India Company exploit a divided Bengal, private revenge becomes entangled with a conquest whose political and economic consequences extend far beyond the battlefield.

Series

Series featuring Robert Clive (2 series)

Epic Historical Adventure in Order

by Colin Falconer 15 books 4.3

Epic Historical Adventure is Colin Falconer's publisher-defined collection of stand-alone historical thrillers rather than a continuous narrative sequence. The novels range from Alexander the Great, Cleopatra and the Mongol Empire to the Ottoman court, the conquest of Mexico, colonial India, shipwreck and twentieth-century Palestine. Most volumes can be…

All books in this series

Ballantyne Chronicles in Order

by Alex Rutherford 2 books 4.3

The Ballantyne Chronicles follow Nicholas Ballantyne from a threatened youth in 1744 Scotland into the expanding world of the British East India Company. Sent to India for his safety, he forms a decisive friendship with Robert Clive and becomes involved in the contest between British and French interests…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Robert Clive (6 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.