An English Lady in Chinese Turkestan (Oxford in Asia Paperbacks) Book

In 1898 Cather Borland married George Macartney and, as a bride of 21, journeyed with him to one of the least accessible places on earth - Kashgar in Turkestan, on the remote borders of India, Russia and China. George Macartney represented Britain at Kashgar from 1890 to 1918. Officially he was responsible for looking after the interests of the small British Indian community there, but unofficially he kept a watch on the activities of the Russians. For at that time Kashgar was Britain's most advanced position in the Great Game, the long and shadowy struggle with the Tsarist Russia for political and economic supremacy in Asia. Lady Macartney spent seventeen years in Kashgar and extended her hospitality to many famous travellers, among them Sir Aurel Stein, Albert von Le Coq and Dr G.E.Morrison. This book, first published in 1931, is a charming account of her life there and of the sometimes exotic customs of Turkestan. This edition is now reprinted with the addition of an Introduction by Peter Hopkirk, the author of three books on the Central Asian travellers. "Foreign Devils on the Silk Road", "Trespassers on the Roof of the World", and "Setting the East Ablaze".Read More