The Thumbnail Book Reviews

by John Q McDonald --- 19 February 1998

Younghusband

The Last Great Imperial Adventurer

by Patrick French

This is the biography of the man most famous for the British trade mission and invasion of Tibet in 1904. However, after that tragic adventure, his life was transformed by the pursuit of religious inspiration. This is a complex story, well drawn by the author (a 27-year-old mountain climber and Tibet enthusiast). Younghusband, an ardent imperialist and explorer, was transformed into a soulful man, naive-sounding and sometimes insensitive, but enthusiastic and sincere. He traveled thousands of miles across China into the Himalaya, throughout India and even South Africa, only to spend the final thirty years of his life exploring a new age of religion and the spirituality of the natural world. Many prominent figures of his age appear in his life, guided by the fame he attained in the Tibetan fiasco, including Ghandi, Charles Lindbergh, and Bertrand Russell. Undaunted by two previous failed biographers, Patrick French weaves historical facts in with his own quest to find what remains of Younghusband's life today. Along the way, he encounters strange reserved characters with fading memories, and the bizarre rules that still conceal documents a hundred years old. Thus the story leaves a feeling that there are gaps, and sometimes a little less insightful than the reader may wish, but still engrossing and instilling sympathy for its subject.

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See Also: [Bayonets to Lhasa by Peter Fleming]

Also by Patrick French: [Tibet, Tibet]

[Other Buddhism and Tibet Books]

[Other History and Biography]