News from Tartary is the account of an illegal, six-month journey from Beijing to Kashmir in 1935. The physical resilience which took Fleming and his Swiss companion, Ella Maillart, across some of the world’s most inaccessible mountain passes and desert regions was matched by bravery and luck. China was then caught up a vicious civil war while trying to repel the invading Japanese, while in eastern Turkestan charismatic Muslim warlords were allying themselves with Soviet Russia.
None of the foreign journalists who had attempted to report from this region over the previous eight years had come out alive. The relationship between Peter (reporting for The Times) and the adventurous Ella, with their different abilities and character, becomes a source of gentle fascination. For beneath their easy-going charm, both had that sliver of ice required of a writer and had already travelled alone in the region, setting down their separate adventures in Turkestan Solo and One’s Company.
‘It confirmed Fleming’s place in the front rank of travel writers ... no modern work of travel has given me more pleasure ... I have read it more times than I can remember.’ Nigel Buxton
News from Tartary is the account of an illegal, six-month journey from Beijing to Kashmir in 1935. The physical resilience which took Fleming and his Swiss companion, Ella Maillart, across some of the world’s most inaccessible mountain passes and desert regions was matched by bravery and luck. China was then caught up a vicious civil war while trying to repel the invading Japanese, while in eastern Turkestan charismatic Muslim warlords were allying themselves with Soviet Russia.
None of the foreign journalists who had attempted to report from this region over the previous eight years had come out alive. The relationship between Peter (reporting for The Times) and the adventurous Ella, with their different abilities and character, becomes a source of gentle fascination. For beneath their easy-going charm, both had that sliver of ice required of a writer and had already travelled alone in the region, setting down their separate adventures in Turkestan Solo and One’s Company.
‘It confirmed Fleming’s place in the front rank of travel writers ... no modern work of travel has given me more pleasure ... I have read it more times than I can remember.’ Nigel Buxton
News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir
ISBN: 978-1-78060-213-4
Format: 400pp demi pb
Place: Peking, Kashmir
Author Biography
Peter Fleming was the brother of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond series and was special correspondent for The Times. He was married to the actress Celia Johnson, best known for her role in the film Brief Encounter
