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Each of these books has an Introduction by:
Peter Hopkirk
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Each of these books covers themes explored in:
Peter Hopkirk's
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Introduction
Peter Hopkirk's books on Espionage, Intrigue, Small Wars and Skirmishes, on the Borders of the British Empire and Central Asia,
make fascinating reading as they deal with the people on all sides who played the original Great Game and its follow-on
Matches, to the end of British Rule in India.
Although the Players and the means by which they play have changed the Great Game continues, much of it over the same ground
covered in the books.
I have recently reread all the Books listed in the next section and enjoyed them immensely, just as I did the very first time I read them!
Books by Peter Hopkirk
The Great Game : On Secret Service in High Asia
For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth - Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia
fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy
struggle called it 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalized in Kipling's Kim.
When play first began the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian
outposts were within 20 miles of India.
This classic book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of the young officers, both
British and Russian, who risked their lives playing it.
Disguised as holy men or native horse-traders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence and
sought the allegiance of powerful Khans. Some never returned.
The violent repercussions of the Great Game are still convulsing Central Asia today.
On Secret Service East of Constantinople
Under the banner of a Holy War, masterminded in Berlin and unleashed from Constantinople,
the Germans and the Turks set out in 1914 to foment violent revolutionary uprisings against
the British in India and the Russians in Central Asia.
It was a new and more sinister version of the old Great Game, with world domination as its ultimate aim.
Here, told in epic detail and for the first time, is the true story behind John Buchan's classic wartime
thriller "Greenmantle", recounted through the adventures and misadventures of the secret agents and others
who took part in it.
It is an ominously topical tale today in view of the continuing turmoil in this volatile region where
the Great Game has never really ceased.
Setting the East Ablaze
'Let us turn our faces towards Asia', exhorted Lenin when the long-awaited revolution in Europe failed
to materialize. 'The East will help us conquer the West.'
Peter Hopkirk's book tells for the first time the story of the Bolshevik attempt to set the East ablaze
with the heady new gospel of Marxism. Lenin's dream was to liberate the whole of Asia, but his starting
point was British India. A shadowy undeclared war followed.
Among the players in this new Great Game were British spies, Communist revolutionaries,
Muslim visionaries and Chinese warlords -- as well as a White Russian baron who roasted
his Bolshevik captives alive.
Here is an extraordinary tale of intrigue and treachery, barbarism and civil war, whose violent
repercussions continue to be felt in Central Asia today.
Foreign Devils on the Silk Road
The Silk Road, the great trans-Asian highway linking Imperial Rome to China, reached the height of its
importance during the T'ang Dynasty.
Along it travelled precious cargoes as well as new ideas, art and knowledge. Its oasis towns blossomed
into thriving centres of trade. However, as the Chinese lost control of the region, it began to decline
to the point where the towns disappeared beneath desert sands. Local legends grew of buried treasure
guarded by demons.
This is the story of the intrepid adventurers who, at great personal risk, led long-range archaeological
raids to the region in the early years of the 20th century. Profiles of such archaeologists as Sir Aurel
Stein, who carried off large quantities of priceless wall paintings, sculptures, silks and early manuscripts,
augment a narrative which also traces the fate of the works of art that were removed.
Trespassers on the roof of the world : the race for Lhasa
Hidden behind the Himalayas and ruled over by a God-king, Tibet has always cast a powerful spell
over travellers form the West.
In this remarkable, and ultimately tragic narrative, Peter Hopkirk recounts the forcible opening
up of this medieval land during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the extraordinary race
between agents, soldiers, missionaries, mountaineers, explorers, and mystics from nine different
countries to reach Lhasa, Tibet's sacred capital.
His story concludes with the ultimate act of trespass - the Chinese invasion of 1950.
Quest for Kim - In Search of Kipling's Great Game
This book is for all those who love Kim , that masterpiece of Indian life in which Kipling immortalized
the Great Game.
Fascinated since childhood by this strange tale of an orphan boy's recruitment into the Indian Secret
Service, Peter Hopkirk here explores the many mysteries surrounding Kipling's great novel. He shows that
most of the characters - Kim himself, the old Tibetan lama, Colonel Creighton, Mahbub Ali, Lurgan Sahib
and the Babu (agent R17) - were inspired, in whole or in part, by actual individuals.
Likewise, its locations are real - all of them familiar to the young Kipling when, more than a century
ago, he worked as a reporter on a Lahore newspaper.
Although Hopkirk trailed Kim and the Lama across India and Pakistan, this is less a travel book than a
literary detective story. It is not even essential to have read Kim in order to enjoy it, for Kipling's
narrative is carefully sketched in as Hopkirk's quest unfolds.
Because its hero is a teenage boy, many people mistakenly believe Kim to be a children's book. This book
is intended for wide popular appeal as an adventure and espionage story; lovers of travel writing, of
Hopkirk's writing, and of Kipling's writing; those interested in Indian history and the history of the
Great Game.
Peter Hopkirk (15 th December 1930 -) a Biographical Summary
Peter Hopkirk has traveled widely over many years in the regions where his books are set: Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Eastern Turkey.
Other than he attended Dragon School Preparatory school in Oxford, educational details are TBA.
Before starting his career as a Journalist he served as a subaltern in the King's African Rifles, in the same battalion as Lance-Corporal Idi Amin, later to emerge as the Ugandan tyrant.
During the 1950's he edited the West African news magazine Drum, sister paper to its legendary South African namesake.
Before turning full-time author he was an ITN reporter and newscaster for two years, the New York correspondent of Lord Beaverbrook’s Daily Express, and then worked for nearly twenty years on The Times; five as its chief reporter, and latterly as a Middle East and Far East specialist.
No stranger to misadventure, Hopkirk has twice been held in secret-police cells, both in Cuba and the Middle East and has also been hijacked by Arab terrorists.
His works have been translated officially into fourteen languages, and unofficial versions in local languages are apt to appear in the bazaars of Central Asia.
In 1999 he was awarded the Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal for his writing and travels by the Royal Society for Asian Affairs.
He is married and his Wife Kathleen published
The Traveler’s Companion to Central Asia (1994) which is a collection of excerpts from writers on the 19th and early 20th century in Russian-dominated
Central Asia. Includes pieces by geographers, scientists, explorers, military officials and travellers. And forms a good introduction in English to the late imperial period of this region.
Selected DVD Documentaries
Amazon and British Airways Links
