Brave New (Contentious) World

His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad was anxious. The richest man in the world had reason to be on edge, as he was about to experience one of the most tremendous reversals in human history.

To be rich in the Nizam's days was not so much a matter of credit cards and shareholdings as gold bullion and jewels. It was said that the Nizam owned £400 million worth of jewels – enough to pave the streets of Piccadilly. He was not without the absolute ruler's bluff hypocrisy: though he had worn the same fez for 35 years and tended to flaunt his everyman poverty, he had also acquired an unchecked penchant for sex and – significantly for the ensuing decades-long litigation – the creation of heirs.