July 2012 Guest Editor Barbara Erskine on The Far Pavilions...
One of my all-time favourite historical novels. A real 1970s blockbuster about India in the time of the Mutiny. A wonderful romantic overwhelming book, the title of which haunts me – the pavilions are the distant mountain ranges of the Himalayas.
The Far Pavilions is the story of an English man - Ashton Pelham-Martyn - brought up as a Hindu. It is the story of his passionate, but dangerous love for Juli, an Indian princess. It is the story of divided loyalties, of friendship that endures till death, of high adventure and of the clash between East and West. To the burning plains and snow-capped mountains of this great, humming continent, M.M. Kaye brings her exceptional gifts of storytelling and meticulous historical accuracy, plus her insight into the human heart.
'Rip-roaring, heart-tugging, flag-flying, hair-raising, hoof-beating ... the very presence of India' The Times
'A long, romantic adventure story of the highest calibre ... wildly exciting' Daily Telegraph
'Magnificent is the only possible description for The Far Pavilions ... not one of its 950 pages is a page too much' Evening Standard
'A Gone With the Wind of the North-West frontier -- Jan Morris The Times
Author
About M. M. Kaye
M. M. Kaye was born in India in 1908 and spent most of her childhood and much of her early married life there. She is known world-wide for her bestselling historical novels The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon. M. M. Kaye died in 2004.
