Tim Heald
Sticky Fingers
Imprint of the Raj: How Fingerprinting Was Born in Colonial India
By Chandak Sengoopta
Macmillan 234pp £15.99 order from our bookshop
H R F KEATING WROTE an excellent short story about Indian fingerprints, 'The Evidence I Shall Give', which seemed to be all one could possibly need to read about this obscure subject until the appearance of this unusual and meticulous scholarly work.
The history of fingerprinting is complicated and even Chandak Sengoopta is unable to name with absolute certainty the man who unlocked its significance. It could have been a scientist in the US Department of Agriculture in 1877, although Sengoopta is inclined to favour an English colonial civil servant, Sir William
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
From the archive: Kenneth Rose on the life of Princess Alice of Battenberg
https://literaryreview.co.uk/she-trumped-them-all
'The trick of a successful mercenary ... was somehow to get on almost as well with your enemies as your allies, since those two positions could be reversed at dizzying speed.'
Sarah Dunant on the life of Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/scholar-in-arms
'McDormand has come closer to Lady Macbeth in some of her previous grimly comic performances ... Here she can convey only the banality of evil, as when she fussily curtails the banquet after Macbeth’s hallucination.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/come-thick-night