Hall of a Thousand Columns - Softcover

Mackintosh-Smith, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719565871 ISBN 13: 9780719565878

Publisher: John Murray, 2006

Synopsis

Born in 1304, Ibn Battutah left his native Tangier as a young scholar of law; over the 30 years that followed he visited most of the known world between Morocco and China. In this enchanting travelogue, Tim Mackintosh-Smith retraces one leg of the Moroccan’s journey: the dizzy ladders and terrifying snakes of his Indian career as a judge and hermit, courtier and prisoner, ambassador and castaway. From the plains of Hindustan to the plateaus of the Deccan and the lost ports of Malabar, an India far off the beaten path of Taj and Raj glittering and grotesque but genuine is revealed here.

About this title

About the Author

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is the author of Travels with a Tangerine and Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, winner of the 1998 Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award.

Review

'A very beguiling mix of modern-day travelogue and a history of Magul India' * Sue Baker, Publishing News * 'Brilliant' * Classic FM * 'Blending a passion for writing with a vanished world, he triumphs . . . Splendid . . . I would like to write an essay about this book, it is so good' * Good Book Guide * 'Erudite and entertaining' * Bookseller * 'Beguiling' * Publishing News * 'The indefatigable Mackintosh-Smith continues his pursuit of the great Moroccan traveller' * Conde Nast Traveller * 'Mackintosh-Smith is an entertaining and thoughtful writer' * India Today * 'Mackintosh-Smith is undoubtedly very clever' * The Hindu * 'Interesting' * Folkestone Herald and Dover Express * 'Refreshingly robust . . . Mackintosh-Smith perseveres with good humour, displaying a high tolerance for puns and a poet's ear for "linguistic oxymora" . . . A fascinating journey in good company - a traveller could have no better gift.' * Geographical * 'Mackintosh-Smith's own comments and causeries . . . transform mundane travel writing into the beguiling, the brilliant and the brave. The writing goes beyond descriptive or recollective to include a style - between commentary and epic poetry - that is as individual, as quirky, as IB's own . . . Engrossing . . . Classic' * Melbourne Age * 'The author's research has been thorough, but his tone is often enjoyably light . . . The Hall of a Thousand Columns has achieved what its author intended' * Times Literary Supplement * Remarkable . . . [He] writes so engagingly and with such felicitous phrasing . . . Another triumph, travel writing of the very highest order and the perfect ripsote to any publisher or agent who has been predicting the demise of the genre * Justin Marozzi, The Spectator * 'An engaging homage to one of travel writing's founding fathers' * Henry Day. London Review of Books * Mackintosh-Smith seems to tread a pleasing path between using Ibn-Battutah's work as his personal guide book and taking in his surroundings as they come. The best thing about this book is how the past and the present are mingled * Global magazine * 'The wellspring of his writing is his profound immersion in a Muslim culture . . . the strength of his work derives from his position as both insider and outsider in the Arab world . . . Mackintosh-Smith is in that same learned yet good-humoured tradition [as Leigh Fermor]' * Daily Telegraph * 'An engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour, quirkiness and the way in which the country constantly juxtaposes the extraordinary with the mundane' * Guardian * A thoroughly engaging read . . . Smith writes articulately and with good humour . . . very rewarding * Adventure Travel magazine * This is engrossing writing to transport even the most languid armchair traveller * Daily Express * Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text . . . This is an engrossing book * Ziauddin Sardar, Independent * Wisecracking . . . One of the most enjoyable things about Mackintosh-Smith's narrative is the way it intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with his own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India. A book that travels in time as well as in space * Daily Mail * Tim's aim is to sift tangible history from magical reality . . . Mackintosh-Smith proves the sceptics wrong: India is the Jewel in the Prince of Travellers' turban * The Nehru Centre * Part travel book, part biography, part detective story, this is a gripping read and a fitting testament to the Prince of Travellers. * Wanderlust * With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith ... has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes. But above all, he engages with ideas, and his aim is that of the novelist - to send a bucket down into the subconscious. * Guardian Weekly * Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . [Mackintosh-Smith's] talent is not in doubt. . . . The author appears as an enthusiastic researcher, a thirsty drinker, and a traveller who allows little to deter him from his path . . . Rich and fascinating * Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times * As a writer and traveller Tim Mackintosh-Smith has two great gifts: he slips effortlessly between the past and the present, and he takes us with him. This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air. * Charles Allen * Mackintosh-Smith has all the assets a travel writer needs: erudition without pretension; rather subversive good humour without relentless jokiness; and a descriptive eye capable of sketching complex detail in a few telling lines of ink * Praise for previous work, The Daily Telegraph * A first-rate travel book, enlivened by the author's erudition, subtle humour, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject * Traveller * 'A rich texture of multiple perception . . . Beneath this funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic travelogue there is a darkly tragic theme. For interwoven with the real-time journey of Mackintosh-Smith through India is an enquiry into the nature of Islam in India' * Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review * Were he to jump on a camel for his second volume in the great traveller's footsteps ... he would surely be the Burton of his day * Praise for previous works The Spectator * 'The author's research has been thorough, but his tone is often enjoyably light . . . The Hall of a Thousand Columns has achieved what its author intended' * Times Literary Supplement * Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times. * Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and * Another triumph, travel writing of the very highest order and the perfect ripsote to any publisher or agent who has been predicting the demise of the genre. * The Spectator * A deft use of language, anecdote, scholarship and a daunting appreciation for all that is wonderful and absurd in the world. Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match. * Eric Hansen * This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air. * Charles Allen * Mackintosh-Smith seems to tread a pleasing path between using Ibn-Battutah's work as his personal guide book and taking in his surroundings as they come. The best thing about this book is how the past and the present are mingled * Global magazine * A thoroughly engaging read . . . Smith writes articulately and with good humour . . . very rewarding * Adventure Travel magazine * Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text. * Ziauddin Sardar, Independent * This is engrossing writing to transport even the most languid armchair traveller. * Daily Express * A book that travels in time as well as in space . . . Intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with [the author's] own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India * Daily Mail * A curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes * Guardian Weekly * With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith . . . has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes . . . an engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour and quirkiness * Guardian * Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . Mackintosh-Smith's is not in doubt . . . Rich and fascinating * Sunday Times * Tim's aim is to sift tangible history from magical reality ...and he proves the sceptics wrong: India is the Jewel in the Prince of Travellers' turban. * The Nehru Centre * Part travel book, part biography, part detective story, this is a gripping read and a fitting testament to the Prince of Travellers. * Wanderlust * Funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic * Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review * Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times. * Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and * As a writer and traveller Tim Mackintosh-Smith has two great gifts: he slips effortlessly between the past and the present, and he takes us with him. This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air. * Charles Allen * Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match. * Eric Hansen * Mackintosh-Smith has all the assets a travel writer needs: erudition without pretension; rather subversive good humour without relentless jokiness; and a descriptive eye capable of sketching complex detail in a few telling lines of ink * Praise for previous work, The Daily Telegraph * Were he to jump on a camel for his second volume in the great traveller's footsteps ... he would surely be the Burton of his day * Praise for previous works The Spectator * This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air. * Charles Allen, author of Duel in the Snows *

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0719565871
• ISBN 13: 9780719565878
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352