Before Thesiger, T.E. Lawrence and Richard Burton, there was an even greater traveller in the heroic British tradition of the recklessly adventurous, amateur scholar Alexander Burnes. This slightly built, wiry young Scotsman, had a rapier-like mind, sharp, quick and decisive. Se…
Travels into Bokhara
by Burnes, Alexander,, Sir, Burnes, Alexander,, Sir, Hopkirk, Kathleen
Before Thesiger, T.E. Lawrence and Richard Burton, there was an even greater traveller in the heroic British tradition of the recklessly adventurous, amateur scholar Alexander Burnes. This slightly built, wiry young Scotsman, had a rapier-like mind, sharp, quick and decisive. Se…
Alexander Burnes travelled up the Indus to Lahore and to the Khanates of Afghanistan and Central Asia in the 1830s, spying on behalf of the British Government in what was to become known as the 'Great Game'. His account of these travels was a bestseller in its day and this brand…