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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.

Clive’s military and political actions at Arcot and Plassey accelerated East India Company control and transformed the balance of power in Bengal. Robert Clive was born in Styche, Shropshire and died in London.

Robert Harvey’s Clive follows Robert Clive from East India Company clerk to the soldier whose victories at Arcot and Plassey transformed British power in India, while also examining the fortune, patronage and controversy that accompanied his rise. William Savage’s Fortune’s Soldier places a fictional young Company servant beside the ambitious Clive during the Carnatic Wars, when commercial rivalry with France becomes territorial conflict. An Ambush of Tigers uses the same mid-eighteenth-century struggle in southern India to show Clive’s military world from the perspective of adventurers and mercenaries. Michael Burleigh’s Mavericks treats Plassey as the defining example of Clive’s unconventional command. Lawrence James’s Raj then places his victories and Bengal administration at the beginning of the long process by which Company rule became the British Indian empire.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Robert Clive (2 series)

Epic Historical Adventure in Order

by Colin Falconer 14 books 4.3(129,144)

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

1. A Vain and Indecent Woman

First published 2018 · 4.3(4,249)

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2. An Ambush of Tigers

First published 2025 · 4.4(4,472)

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3. Colossus

First published 2014 · 4.3(7,856)

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4. Converso

First published 2024 · 4.3(5,796)

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5. East India

First published 2000 · 4.1(8,743)

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6. Ends of the Earth

First published 2023 · 4.5(9,654)

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7. Feathered Serpent

First published 1996 · 4.1(6,373)

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8. Fever Coast

First published 2022 · 4.4(8,671)

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9. Fury: Book 2

First published 1993 · 4.4(3,212)

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10. Harem

First published 1992 · 4.1(15,560)

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11. Lord of the Atlas

First published 2021 · 4.4(11,149)

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12. Silk Road

First published 2000 · 4.3(30,011)

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13. Stigmata

First published 2004 · 4.2(8,117)

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14. Venom

First published 1990 · 4.4(5,281)

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Ballantyne Chronicles in Order

by Alex Rutherford 2 books 4.3(2,379)

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…