News from Tartary - A Journey from Peking to Kashmir

Jonathan Cape, 16th Impression, October 1945, No dustwrapper, new end papers?, twinked out mark on front endpaper, binding firm, pages 9 and 339 have some waterstaining, pullout map intact, minimal foxing

A landmark work of real-life adventures by Peter Fleming (brother of Ian Fleming) describing his journey through time, space, and the political milieu of Turkestan. This region or empire known as Tartary stretching below Siberia from Turkey through to India is historically known as Grand Tartary and was essentially excised from history in the nineteenth century. Fleming is more than a travel writer. He was a seeker and adventurer describing a riding tour from Peking to India in 1930's Asia. Fleming reflects on enduring the seven month journey across 3,700 miles of desert and upland through towering mountains, ice and sand, hunger and thirst. Fleming's political and cultural insights are considerable. The volume's entertainment value immense as it arouses great fury and much pleasure. An epic adventure of immense depth, yet easily digestible. Peter Fleming's account of this seven-month journey across Central Asia, while a special correspondent for The Times of London, has become a work of reference for the early twentieth century and prior. A classic tale of travel and travail...