Required reading: Feuds among the Plantagenet family to those in Game of Thrones

The daughter of Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s notorious president, gave a rare interview last week, in which she claimed that her mother and sister are plotting against her ahead of a 2015 general election.

Karimov is Uzbekistan’s first and only president, ruling since the nation achieved independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. But as he stands for re-election in 2015, it’s clear a battle is raging behind the scenes: his eldest daughter Gulnara Karimova claims to have been the victim of a poisoning attempt and says her sister, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva, is trying to outmanoeuvre her in pursuit of political influence in Tashkent.

Of course, the Karimovs aren’t the only family to fall out over possession of vast power. There are plenty of books centred on family feuds.

• Start with one of the most epic family feuds in history. For 30 years in the 15th century, two sides of the royal Plantagenet family fought for possession of the English throne. See Lancaster and York: The Wars of the Roses (Vintage, Dh60) by Alison Weir to learn how the power vacuum left by the pious but mentally unstable Henry VI led to the war, which only ended when Henry Tudor seized power and founded the Tudor dynasty.

• Royal family feuds, though, aren't only the stuff of medieval history. Read Massacre at the Palace (Miramax, Dh60) to learn how on June 1, 2001, Prince Dipendra of Nepal burst into the Narayanhiti royal palace and opened fire on his relatives, killing his father, King Birendra, his mother, and several siblings before turning a gun on himself. Prince Dipendra reigned as king for three days before dying from his injuries.

• To really dive into the mechanics of political feud, though, turn to fiction. George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (Harper Voyager, Dh54) tells the story of multiple families contesting the same throne: you might recognise the story better as HBO's runaway success television show Game of Thrones. The land of Westeros may be fictional, but the politics are as real, and acute, as those found in any history textbook.

* David Mattin

Required reading: Feuds among the Plantagenet family to those in Game of Thrones

The daughter of the president of Uzbekistan is claiming her mother and sister are plotting against her. Here's a reading list on feuds in powerful ruling families, from the Wars of the Roses, to the Nepalese Prince who shot his entire family.