News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir

by Peter Fleming

Book Overview

Originally published in 1936, News from Tartary is the story of a journey from Peking through the mysterious province of Sinkiang, to India. Fleming tells the story in his inimitable manner, dismissing the difficulties with irony and describing events and developments with humor and brilliant color, and his account is a classic of travel writing as well as a brilliant description of a vanished time and way of life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810160714
• ISBN13: 9780810160712
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Marlboro Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

News from Tartary

Peter Fleming (1907-71) was Ian Fleming's (James Bond) older brother. Peter first rose to popularity in his 20's, during the early 30's, with 3 major travel/adventure books about trips through Brazil (33'), China (34') and Central Asia (36'). 'News from Tartary' (1936) is the last of the three and describes a 6 month 3500 mile trip from Peking (Beijing) due west across Chinas western provinces and south to India ("Tartary" is a Western term roughly meaning Central Asia). At the time China's most western province of Sinkiang (sometimes known as "Chinese Turkestan") was embroiled in a complex struggle of colonial and civil wars with Russia, China, etc.. and was a black hole of news. Sort of like Chechnya today, it held a certain dangerous fascination for intrepid western adventurers. Fleming traveled with Swiss writer Ella Maillart (1903-97) who was herself an accomplished adventurer, although not so well known in the English speaking world, she also wrote her own book about this trip and the two can be read for profitable comparison. There are many re-prints of News in circulation but the original edition is best as it contains dozens of fascinating black and white photos, thick rough-cut paper and a color tri-fold map of the route. 'News from Tartary' is today considered a classic of travel literature ranked #64 on National Geographic's "100 Best Adventure Books". It is an early example of "British understatement", the bumbling amateur English gentleman who travels for no reason other than traveling, as would be copied in the post war years, with authors such as Eric Newby. Fleming graduated from Oxford with an advanced degree in English literature and while he believed in adventure, he wondered how - in a modern world of motor vehicles, trains and planes - real adventure could be written of anymore. Just as Cervantes in 'Don Quixote' believed in the spirit of chivalry, but knew its time had passed, he was able to write about it through a bumbling knight who could be laughed at. Likewise Fleming sought to disarm his readers with word play and self-deprecation, thus strengthening the more serious parts of the book and lending the author more credibility - Fleming succeed, in the readers eyes, not because of physical prowess and skills, but despite them. By being an approachable everyman, he is more able to vividly convey to his readers - who probably have never been to remote central Asia and never will - how it feels to travel through the Gobi desert on camels, arriving in oasis, going through sandstorms and traveling through the Himalayas.

A superb account of travels in Central Asia

"News from Tartary" is number 64 on National Geographic's list of 100 all-time best adventure books -- and it deserves the ranking. The author, Peter Fleming, brother of James Bond creator Ian Fleming, would deny that the book is about an "adventure" and claim that he and companion Ella K. Maillard merely took a long walk through Chinese Turkestan and, oh yes, crossed the Himalayas. Maillard wrote her own book about the trek, "Forbidden Journey," and it's also worth reading. "News from Tartary" is the story of a seven-month, 3,500 mile journey in 1935 from Peking to Kashmir, beginning by train and continuing by bus, foot, camel, and horse. Fleming is the British amateur par excellence. His equipment consisted of "a rook rifle, six bottles of brandy, and Macaulay's "History of England." He claims no qualifications or expertise to speak of, no purpose in traveling other than his own entertainment, and he gained little in the way of earthshaking wisdom that he shares with us. (If you read Maillard's book, you will find that his modest and self-mocking attitude may not be too far from the truth -- although Fleming is certainly an outstanding writer and journalist.) This is a cracking good story, more informative than it may seem, and charmingly told. Of an acquaintance, Fleming says that he "had seen me act more than once at Oxford, but he was of a forgiving disposition and prepared to let bygones be bygones." And, the author to the contrary, it was an adventure. Fleming and Maillard traversed some of the most unforgiving terrain in the world at a time in which banditry and political strife were rife. Fleming describes vividly the Chinese, Tungans, Turkis, and Tibetans they meet, the impossibly remote oasis towns at the foot of the Himalayas, and the passage across 15,000 feet mountain passes into British India. One of the more interesting elements of the book is the intrusion of modern politics into this narrative of exotic lands and unchanging people. The pair encounter civil war, Russian soldiers and airplanes in Kashgar, and "Great Game" intrique. I recommend you read this book with a good map at your side - or better yet buy a used copy of the original hardback edition which has a map and some good photos. Smallchief

A Classic of Travel Writing

I haven't bought this edition yet. I read this while in Nepal and India and loved it. It is one of the finest pieces of travel writing I know of. I rank it with Harrer's "Seven Years in Tibet", Newby's "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Thesiger's "Arabian Sands" and Stark's "Valleys of the Assassins." No new-age, PC navel-gazing here: just an honest and humorously-told narrative of an adventurous overland crossing of central Asia in a turbulent time. If you are interested in central Asia, I think this book is a must.