THERE IS NOT much to say about this book by way of introduction. It describes an undeservedly successful attempt to travel overland from Peking in China to Kashmir in India. The journey took seven months and covered about 3,500 miles...With masterly understatement Peter Fleming begins this account of what is one of the true epics of adventure. With his companion, Eva Maillart, and motivated largely by curiosity, they set out across a China torn by civil war to journey through Sinkiang to British India. It had been eight ...
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THERE IS NOT much to say about this book by way of introduction. It describes an undeservedly successful attempt to travel overland from Peking in China to Kashmir in India. The journey took seven months and covered about 3,500 miles...With masterly understatement Peter Fleming begins this account of what is one of the true epics of adventure. With his companion, Eva Maillart, and motivated largely by curiosity, they set out across a China torn by civil war to journey through Sinkiang to British India. It had been eight years since a traveller had crossed Sinkiang; in between times those who had entered this inhospitable and politically volatile area seldom left alive. This, China's most westerly province, was under the control of a rebel warlord supported by Stalin's Red Army. Within it there was yet further civil war and the southern oases through which Fleming and Maillart had to travel were under the control of yet another rebel force. Entering the province by a little known and almost lethal route and following the path of the Silk Road, they ended up in Kashgar before crossing the Pamirs to India. Beautifully written and superbly observed, this is not simply a superb account of a part of the world few of us will ever see, but also a marvellous insight into the last days of the Great Game, when Britain and Russia still faced each other across a Central Asia in a state of anarchy. It is a magnificent travelogue by one of the last and greatest adventures of Empire.
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Add this copy of News From Tartary: a Journey From Peking to Kashmir to cart. $19.62, fair condition, Sold by Anybook rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Lincoln, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2001 by Birlinn Ltd.
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Seller's Description:
This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside. This book has soft covers. In fair condition, suitable as a study copy. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 650grams, ISBN: 9781843410034.
Add this copy of News From Tartary to cart. $40.45, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Birlinn.
The epitaph on the grave of Peter Fleming, the author of this book, reads:
He travelled widely in far places;
Wrote, and was widely read.
Soldiered, saw some of danger's faces,
Came home to Nettlebed.
The squire lies here, his journeys ended -
Dust, and a name on a stone -
Content, amid the lands he tended,
To keep this rendezvous alone.
Peter Fleming (1907 - 1971) was a great traveller. He was the brother of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. The epitaph on his gravestone, in Nettlebed Churchyard, Oxfordshire, England, tells us a lot about the life he led. This book is one of the most absorbing true adventure stories I have read and, although not now widely available or known, it remains an awe-inspiring travelogue. Many of the places visited by Fleming on his 1935 seven month grand trek from Peking to Kashmir with the Swiss travel writer and adventurer Ella Maillart, are still rarely visited by outsiders or people from the West.