Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer

by PatrickFrench (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1994

  $5.69

  Sir Francis Younghusband was the last of the great imperialists, a dashing adventurer - in 1903 he single-handedly invaded Tibet, wiped out its entire army and then became a mystic. Admired by H.G Wells and Bertrand Russell, he held the world record for the 300-yard dash, was the first European since Marco Polo to travel from Peking to Central Asia, discovered the source of the Indus and as a spy his presumed death almost sparked off an Indo-Russian war. The quest to quantify this man has led Patrick French through the Mustagh Pass, from the Himalayas to Kashmir, and into Tibet in search of clues, and into Younghusband's personal papers only recently made available personal papers only recently made available to the public.

• Used

  Paperback
  1995

  $11.96

  'The soldier, mystic and explorer Francis Younghusband, who fulfilled the romantic dreams of the late British Empire, was once as legendary a figure as Lawrence of Arabia. He lives again most vividly and entertainingly in this remarkable book.' Michael Holroyd In this travelling biography, Patrick French tells the story of the man who held the world record for the three hundred yard dash, discovered a new overland route from China to India, and organised the early assaults on Mount Everest. In 1904 it was Francis Younghusband who single-handedly turned a small diplomatic mission into a full-scale military invasion of the last unexplored country on earth: Tibet. Younghusband spent much of his early life as a leading player in the Great Game -- the battle of wits over the uncharted territory of High Asia -- and his presumed death as a spy in the Pamirs almost sparked off a war between British India and Tsarist Russia. But despite being a classic Edwardian, full of pomposity and repression, in the post-World War I era, he led the way in outlandish, mystical philosophical and sexual free-thinking.