The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia – Peter Hopkirk

Don’t let the thickness of this book put you off, it’s a very readable account of the development of The Great Game from pot luck acquisitions to calculated land grabs, involving wily politicians, sage elder statesmen and military and commercial adventurers, and excellent background if you are off on a Silk Road trip, especially Bokhara or Khiva, or heading towards Afghanistan or Pakistan, the mountains of the Hindu Kush, Pamirs or Karakoram…

In addition, there’s a summary of the British invasion of Tibet, the origins of the Wakhan corridor and reasons as to why the Russian are in the Caucasus and the ‘Stans, and the Brits were in Chitral and Hunza – making this a book even more worth reading if you’re going on a whole range of Wild Frontiers trips! I’m really keen on their Wild Walk In The Hindu Kush now….

Amazon.co.uk link: The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia – Peter Hopkirk