Book review: Downfall of last shah of Iran

One of the often-universal themes in this wonderful book is how autocracies that outstay their welcome are often replaced by usurpers far worse than they were

An estimated 400,000 demonstrators against shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi filled the campus of Tehran University carrying huge portraits of Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini and other opposition leaders on January 13, 1979.

• King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation 
• Scott Anderson 
• Doubleday, €35.00