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 George Pottinger: The Afghan ConnectionEdinburgh. Scottish Academic Press. 1983.First edition. As New condition. Hardback. Dust jacket. 8vo. (5 1/2 inches x 7 7/8 inches) 239 pages. 24 illustrations + maps and plans. In 1838 Eldered Pottinger, a subaltern in the Bombay Artillery, changed the history of Central Asia. Engaged on a solitary mission to gather intelligence in Afghanistan, he had reached Herat just before it was attacked by the Persians with their Russian advisors. Throwing off his native disguise, he organised the defences until the seige was abandoned ten months later. If not for Pottinger - dubbed 'The Hero of Herat' - the key frontier town would have fallen and the international politics of Asia and Europe would have been dangerously transformed. His part in 'that insane enterpise which is know as the first Afghan War' was equally spectacular. In the Kohistan he was again under seige before making a hazardous escape to Kabul. After the murder of the British Envoy in December 1841, Pottinger reluctently obeyed orders to negotiate terms for the British withdrawal from Afghanistan. Made a hostage during the retreat-from which a single European out of a force of 16,000 troops and camp followers reached Jalalabad-he survived months of captivity in apalling conditions. When his captors were bluffed into changing sides, he impertinently set up his own administration before being rescued. He had an uncompromising, often abrasive nature, and his relations with his superiors were often testy. This Account, which brings to life an important, though distressing episode in British Imperial history, is based on Pottinger's letters, and narratives-some not previously analysed. Its intrigues in high places and adventurous exploits rival the fiction of John Buchan. ISBN 07073 0286 2 Fine condition
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