Charles Allen
Historian and author BORN JANUARY 2, 1940 – DIED AUGUST 16, 2020, AGED 80
CHARLES Allen was born in India, seven years before the British Raj came to an end, and became an expert of the colonial period whose well-written books were accessible to readers.
His best-known work was Plain Tales from the Raj, a popular BBC radio documentary in the mid-1970s preceding a bestselling book.
It featured interviews with British men and women who lived on the subcontinent.
They formed part of the critical cultural theory Orientalism, in which Western writers penned their depictions of the Eastern world.
Orientalism was attacked by Palestinian-American author Edward Said as a prejudiced form of one-upmanship by the British but Allen defended it, arguing such writers opened doors into the past of underrepresented voices.
In 2015 at a literary festival, he said: “We use that word history – we
bandy it about too seriously. History is a minefield. We have to look at it with an open mind.”
Prior to Allen’s birth in Kanpur, six generations of his family had served the British Raj.
His parents were Geoffrey Allen, a political officer in the north-east region, and his mother, Joan, nee Henry.
Returning to England when he was seven, he continued a lifelong fascination with India, devouring Rudyard Kipling’s stories. His greatgrandfather Sir George Allen, a publisher, gave The Jungle Book author his first reporting job on the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore.
Allen wrote 25 books in all, several about Buddhism and Kipling. He is survived by his long-term wife, Liz Gould, plus their son and two daughters.