Bayonets to Lhasa: The First Full Account of the British Invasion of Tibet in 1904, News from Tartary

Bayonets to Lhasa: The First Full Account of the British Invasion of Tibet in 1904. London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1961. First edition. 8vo, 319 pp. With portrait frontispiece, numerous black-and-white photographic illustrations and maps, including a double-page map. Original burgundy cloth, gilt lettering to spine, top edge stained red, in the original pictorial dustwrapper, priced 30s net. A detailed and engaging account of the British expedition to Tibet in 1904, led by Colonel Francis Younghusband under the direction of Lord Curzon. Fleming examines the expedition within the context of the Anglo-Russian rivalry known as the Great Game, describing the march across the Tibetan plateau, the negotiations and fighting encountered by the British force, and the eventual entry into Lhasa. Fleming's characteristically cool and understated style combines military and political history with vivid descriptions of the people, landscape and conditions encountered during the expedition. News from Tartary: A Journey from Peking to Kashmir. London: Jonathan Cape, 1936. First edition, first impression. 8vo, 384 pp. Illustrated with photographic plates and folding two-colour map. Original red cloth, gilt lettering and Chinese characters to upper board, gilt lettering to spine, top edge stained red. Fleming's celebrated account of his remarkable 3,500-mile journey from Peking to Kashmir, undertaken in 1935 with the Swiss traveller and photographer Ella Maillart. Travelling through the remote regions of China, Mongolia and Chinese Turkestan, Fleming describes the landscapes, peoples and political conditions encountered on the journey, including the turbulent aftermath of the Kumul Rebellion in Xinjiang. An important and highly entertaining classic of twentieth-century travel literature.