Indian mutiny reviewed

The biggest mass jailbreak in history - during the 1857 rebellion against British rule in north India 150 years ago this month - is the subject of a new book by Leicester University lecturer Clare Anderson.

The Indian Uprising of 1857-8: Prisons, Prisoners and Rebellion is one of the first books to examine the great mutiny from the perspective of the colonised peoples, rather than the British officials and settlers.

Rebels badly damaged or destroyed over 40 prisons, set free more than 20,000 prisoners, and the escaping prisoners helped fuel the uprising.