Description

‘John Keay is the master storyteller and historian. This grand narrative of Himalaya is as epic as the mountains and peoples he describes’ Dan Snow

‘Adds the human element to the hard rock. And what a rich vein it is’ Michael Palin

History has not been kind to Himalaya. Empires have collided here, cultures have clashed. Buddhist India claimed it from the south, Islam put down roots in its western approaches, Mongols and Manchus rode in from the north, and, from the east, China continues to absorb what it prefers not to call Tibet. Hunters have decimated its wildlife and mountaineers have bagged its peaks. Today, machinery gouges minerals out of its rock.

Roughly the size of Europe, the region is one of the most seismically active on the planet. Summers bring avalanches, rainfall triggers landslides and winters obliterate trails. Glaciers retreat, rivers change course and whole lakes quietly evaporate.

To some, Himalaya is an otherworldly realm, profoundly life-changing, yet forbidding and forbidden. It has mesmerised scholars and mystics, sportsmen and spies, pilgrims and mapmakers who have mingled with the farmers and traders on the ‘Roof of the World’.

Himalaya is the story of one of the last great wildernesses and, in particular, of the bizarre discoveries and improbable achievements of its pioneers. Ranging from botany to trade, from the Great Game to today’s geopolitics, John Keay draws on a lifetime of exploration and study to enlighten and delight with this lively biography of a region in crisis.

Publisher Review

Wonderful ... In prose that feels as effortless as it is entertaining, Keay paints a fascinating picture of this magical region, covering everything from geology, glaciers, tectonic plates and botany to the spiritual and religious evolutions of humans -- C P W Gammell * Literary Review * There cannot be any current anglophone writer more knowledgeable about the region. -- Jonathan Buckley * Times Literary Supplement * Adds the human element to the hard rock. And what a rich vein it is -- Michael Palin Excellent -- Michael Dirda * The Washington Post * John Keay is the master storyteller and historian. This grand narrative of Himalaya is as epic as the mountains and peoples he describes -- Dan Snow From palaeontology to mysticism, from the East India Company to mountaineers, this is dazzlingly wide-ranging, brilliantly researched and elegantly told -- Ranulph Fiennes The guru of modern writers on Himalaya. Here, after a lifetime's travel and reflection, is the story of the most important region on earth -- Michael Wood A dazzling collision of storytelling and scholarship, and the culmination of a lifetime's research and experience, this is surely John Keay's masterwork. He tackles the epic subject of the entire Himalayan region, through human history, and brings to it his own distinctive style - at once authoritative and colourful, stirring and droll, ambitious yet humble. A compelling portrait of a uniquely vulnerable region -- James McConnachie Let John Keay be your guide: he has decades of first-hand experience in the region, he wears his extensive learning lightly and he is a magnificent storyteller -- Chris Bonington John Keay's stunning book is meticulously researched and a gripping read. It lays out the long-standing allure of Himalaya, from the geographical and environmental to the archaeological and cultural. -- Kavita Puri A compendium of centuries of outsiders' quests for scientific understanding of every aspect of the Himalayas - from its geology, topography and natural history to questions of anthropology and social history. No potential angle is left unexplored -- Amy Kazmin * Financial Times * The term 'tour de force' doesn't do Keay's Himalaya justice. A beautiful work by one of the world's foremost historians, the book is meticulously researched and written with Keay's particular flair. Comparable in its page-turning addiction to a fictional thriller, this will go down as a seminal work on the Himalaya. -- Kenton Cool Poetically written ... A wonderfully digressive read, with rich portraits and stories of those who made their careers and fame from Himalaya -- Maximillian Morch * Asian Review of Books * A wonderful book about an extraordinary place ... Keay's undertaking in print is as vast in its scope as the area it seeks to enclose between the covers of this single, handsomely illustrated volume ... Truly a place of wonder, wonderfully caught -- Peter Stanford * Church Times * A book that is meant to be savoured, not to be conquered. Enjoy the ride -- Mandira Nayar * The Week, India * The appropriate crown for John Keay's writing on Asia. His study of the Himalaya marks the grand finale to his prodigious twin histories of India and China. Roll over Edward Gibbon. The powerful reimagining of the Himalaya from the structural perspective adds to the mountaineering and mythological lore, while the magisterial style is lightened by marvellous one liners... One of the best and easily the most informed books on the Himalaya -- Bill Aitken, author of Seven Sacred Rivers