GREAT GAME: On Secret Service In High Asia

Told with skill, knowledge, enthusiasm and insight this is the enthralling history of Central Asia and the struggle between Tsarist Russia and Victorian Britain for the treasures of India, played out amidst the high passes and great deserts of Central Asia, and the political and military decisions taken in the 19th century which led to the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. For nearly a century these two most powerful nations fought a secret war and engaged in a shadowy struggle called 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalised in Rudyard Kipling's novel Kim. When play first began, the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart, but in the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India. It is the story of that great imperial struggle for strategic and economic supremacy, fought across a cruel and desolate terrain stretching from the Caucasus to China - espionage and treachery on a grand scale and in exotic settings. This classic book tells the story through the exploits of the young officers both British and Russian who risked their lives playing it including Pottinger, Connolly and Burnes whose courage and resilience is quite astonishing. Disguised as holy men or native horse-traders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned. This welcome chunky paperback reprint of the 1990 original includes 15 black and white illus. and six maps including Afghanistan and the NW Frontier, and the Pamir Region. 562pp, paperback.