A study of the court of Haile Selassie in its final days, assembled through the voices of former courtiers after the regime’s collapse. 

Written in the late 1970s, the book was widely read as an oblique critique of authoritarian systems closer to the author’s own context. Its almost absurdist detail give it the texture of Kafka by way of political journalism. It remains a sharp and unique account of how bureaucratic flattery, fear, and performance sustain a ruler long after legitimacy has eroded.

A detailed anatomy of power, one that's ritualised, theatrical, insulated from reality.