Travel

A Journey Back to the North-West Frontier, b&w photo illustrations, maps, x & 264 pp, green cloth (no d/w), covers a little marked, some marginal spotting at beginning and end, but a very good usable copy, John Murray 1955

21.5 x 13.5 cm, 480g, no ISBN

A quite hair-raising book – you get the impression that if British and American generals had read this before the Iraq War, our troops would never have gone near Afghanistan. 

The author, who worked for the Pakistan Government in this region after partition in 1947, and spoke the local language, revisited his friends and acquaintances in the Pathan (or Pashtun) areas, which were at the time clamouring for independence as “Pashtunistan”.  The Afghan-Pakistan border was only a line on a map, and largely ignored, and the various sub-tribes showed allegiance only to their own war-lords, with the added complication of family disputes and blood-feuds.  I lost count of the number of dead bodies . . . .  And this is without the differences of opinion between the Sunni and Shia Muslims, which are mentioned only in passing.

An entertaining book – Peter Mayne writes very well – but it certainly makes you suck your teeth . . . .