From an early age he was interested in spy novels carrying around Buchan's Greenmantle and Kipling's Kim stories about India. It must have resonated with his writings in the history of the lawless frontiers of the British Empire. The family hailed originally from the borders of Scotland in Roxburghshire where there was a rich history of barbaric raids and reivers hanging justice.
Hopkirk was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford. He grew up at Danbury, Essex, notable for the historic palace of the Bishop of Rochester. Peter Hopkirk was born in Nottingham, the son of Frank Stewart Hopkirk, a prison chaplain, and Mary Perkins. His works have been translated into twelve languages. His previous books include The Great Game, Foreign Devils on the Silk Road, Trespassers on the Roof of the World, Setting the East Ablaze, and Our Secret Service East of Constantinople. His nearly twenty years with The Times included work as an Asian affairs specialist. Peter Hopkirk has traveled widely over many years in the regions where his books are set-Central Asia, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East. a reminder of just how absorbing was the world Kipling knew, and how fabulous was his transformation of it into literature." -Richard Bernstein, New York Times Hopkirk illustrates how creatively and thoroughly the reading of a work of fiction can shape a whole life's experience." - John R. "In an original combination of autobiography, travel writing, and literary detective work, Hopkirk manages accessibly to tell the story of Kim and his own obsession with it. "This is a fascinating, brilliantly written book, as interesting in its description of the author's journeys as it is in its investigation of the reality that lies behind 'the finest novel in the English language with an Indian theme,'" as Kim has been described by Nirad Chaudhuri." -T. Fascinated since childhood by this strange tale of an orphan boy's recruitment into the Indian secret service, Peter Hopkirk here explores the many mysteries surrounding Kipling's great novel.
This book is for all those who love Kim, the masterpiece of Indian life in which Kipling immortalized the Great Game, the centuries-old power struggle between Russia and Great Britain in the depths of Central Asia.
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