Wow! eBook
News from Tartary: An Epic Journey Across Central Asia Reprint Edition
Author(s): Peter Fleming (Author)
- Publisher: Barbara Ward & Associates
- Publication Date: 30 Mar. 2014
- Edition: Reprint
- Language: English
- Print length: 416 pages
- ISBN-10: 1780765037
- ISBN-13: 9781780765037
Book Description
News from Tartary is the account of a journey from Peking to Kashmir, made in 1935 by that legendary adventurer, Peter Fleming. It lasted seven months and covered about 3,500 miles. The route chosen by Fleming and his companion, adventurer and writer Ella Maillart, took them westwards across a China torn by civil war to Xinjiang and then south to British India. It had been eight years since any foreigner had crossed Xinjiang. During that time few of those who entered that inhospitable and politically volatile region, which was under the control of a warlord supported by Stalin’s Red Army, came out alive. After entering the lands of the Tartars by a little-known route and following the course of the ancient Silk Road, they reached Kashgar before crossing the Pamirs into India. Written with style and elegance, as well as acute observation and gentle irony, this is not just a description of a part of the world still difficult to visit, but of the last days of the Great Game, when Britain and Russia vied with each other for control of the unruly fiefs of Central Asia.
Editorial Reviews
Review
‘Contains as much adventure and Empirical snark as one of his bro’s 007 tales’
Wanderlust
Wanderlust
‘Packed with insight, adventure and dry humour, this book confirmed Fleming’s place in the canon of great travel literature.’
‘…affectionately described…in an enthusiasm for travel and adventure that proves contagious. This is travel writing of the sort that deserves to be read, and deserves to be better known.’
‘One reads him for literary delight and for the pleasure of meeting an Elizabethan spirit allied to a modern mind… but he is also an observer of penetrating intellect.’ —
Vita Sackville-WestAbout the Author
Peter Fleming, OBE, (1907-1971) was a journalist and writer and one of the last great adventurers of the twentieth century. He began his career as a special correspondent with The Times and later wrote for The Spectator . He served with the Grenadier Guards during World War II and from 1942 was in charge of military deception operations in Southeast Asia. He is author of several classic books, which include Brazilian Adventure , To Peking , Bayonets to Lhasa , Operation Sea Lion (The Peter Fleming Collection, Tauris Parke Paperbacks), and One’s Company . In his memory, The Royal Geographical Society established The Peter Fleming Award for projects that seek to advance geographical science.
