First published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally printed in book form in 1989, I Served the King of England is "An extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" (the New York times), telling the tale of ditie,...First published in 1971 in a typewritten edition, then finally printed in book form in 1989, I Served the King of England is "An extraordinary and subtly tragicomic novel" (the New York times), telling the tale of ditie, a hugely ambitious but simple waiter in a deluxe prague hotel in the years before World War II. Ditie is called upon to serve not the king of England, but haile selassie.