The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia

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  • Author: Peter Hopkirk
  • Publisher: John Murray
  • Catalogue: 142903
  • Size: 13x20cm
Peter Hopkirk's "The Great Game" tells the history of the decades-long struggle for Central Asia in the 1800’s. For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth - Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia - fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it "The Great Game", a phrase immortalized in Kipling’s "Kim".

When play first began the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India.

This classic book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of the young officers, both British and Russian, who risked their lives playing it. Disguised as holy men or native horse-traders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned. The violent repercussions of the Great Game are still convulsing Central Asia today.

Peter Hopkirk is a veteran journalist and is widely recognized as an authority on the complex history of Central Asia. This is one of his six books on the region.

The book was first published in 1990. The foreword was added by the author in 1997 as the fall of the Soviet Union inaugurated a New Great Game, and has since been briefly updated in 2005 to take account of the post 9/11 action against the Taliban in Afghanistan.