[Bascule]

I've read this too. Like Paluka, I really enjoyed it, it's about a period of history that wasn't covered in my history lessons at school, or on the Discovery channel [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]. It's a non-fictional account of the political intrigue of Britain and Russia in 19th century Asia (south of Russia's borders, what we call Afghanistan, Iran etc. nowadays).

Some of the tales about what would happen to the early British explorers were hair raising... a quick death was a relatively good result. Later explorers fared better, but if the Russians got somewhere first and had political influence with a local leader then the British explorers could expect a bloody end (and vice versa). The Afghan tribal chiefs of the time didn't live by modern western values! To be fair though, the explorers weren't on sightseeing trips - they were all military men, and had ulterior political motives.

I don't have the book with me right now, I'll post more in a day or two if there's interest.