thegreatgame

so-so

Realised I forgot to review this when I finished it last week. Meh - it was OK in parts…very ‘boy‘s own adventure‘, James Bondesque true story from a spy just after WWI.

However, it inevitably involved a lot of politics and half the time I couldn‘t actually understand what was going on, plus he didn‘t seem to achieve a great deal.

Never mind, that‘s the last of those pesky Stans ticked off the #readingasias2021 list! #uzbekistan

Librarybelle, BarbaraBB

Librarybelle Way to go to finishing the stans! (edited) 4y

BarbaraBB What @Librarybelle says! 💪🏽❤️ 4y

rockpools Yay for getting through the stans! 4y

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squirrelbrain @rockpools - I just sent you this one - should be there early next week. (Just letting you know, as your postie seems to like playing hide and seek with your parcels! 😁)

Sovietistan: A Journey Through Turkmenistan, Kasakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan

rockpools @squirrelbrain oooh, thank you Helen! I looked at her other book, The Border, last week, and decided that 600 pages might be a little ambitious right now! And yes. I was checking the recycling bins this morning to make sure a PCR test hadn‘t been delivered‘to a safe place‘ 🙄 - so thank you! Much as I love the postal service, I do have issues with certain postpeople 😬- the hiding stuff I can live with. The origami envelopes wind me right up!! 4y

squirrelbrain Yeah, I‘m not sure I‘d read another book by her. I liked this one but it felt like a loooong book! @rockpools 4y

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Oblomov26

The Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan | William Dalrymple

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A fascinating story which I kind of knew. The tale of imperial overreach as a the English intervene to restore a king to the throne of Afghanistan and the resulting uprising of the local people which saw the king executed and the English thrown out of the country with massive losses. It is amazing to see how the basic themes of history repeats. As a modern character states, the Americans are finished, next it will be the Chinese.

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writerlibrarian

The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia | Peter Hopkirk

Non-fiction #adventrecommends. Hopkirk writes in a way that these British and Russian spies, adventurers, explorers read like fictional heroes playing a huge, masterly game of chess in one of the most mysterious, dangerous and incredible place in the world.

emilyrose_x

25 likes

Oblomov26

Setting the East Ablaze: On Secret Service in Bolshevik Asia | Peter Hopkirk

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After completing Russian Roulette I remembered that I owned this book. Concentrating upon India and the east this book provides more details on how the Soviets sought to raise rebellion in the east and were confronted by the rather eccentric members of the Indian office kicking off a new Great Game. Incorporating tales of attempted rebellions, displaced Turkish leaders and crazy White Russians, a fascinating story that feels more fiction.

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Oblomov26

Soldier Sahibs: The Men Who Made the North-West Frontier | Charles Allen

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Fascinating history of the last generation of John company politicals and the man who recruited them to serve in the Punjab in the years before the mutiny, a mutiny in which many rode to the relief of Delhi and in many case their death. Men such as Lumsden who created the Corp of Guides, Hodson who lead his own private regiment of horse and Nicholson who would lead the assault on the breach at Delhi. A picture of the real “paladins” of empire.

Oblomov26 The quotation mark‘s reflecting that if you are an Indian patriot these were terrible men who committed many acts which could be charitably be viewed as war crimes. (edited) 6y

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