While not as scholarly or well written as FOREIGN DEVILS ON THE SILK ROAD, this was an enjoyable book to read. Hopkirk combined a bit of travelogue, detective story and literary criticism in writing this volume.

The essence of this volume is Hopkirk's search in the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan and northern India for Kipling's Kim. While few of the characters in Kim have direct historical parallels, there were models Kipling drew on for many of them. Kim himself was probably based an orphan of mixed parentage; his father was probably a British army soldier and his mother a Tibetan. Colonel Creighton was probably modeled off of Colonel Montgomerie of the Survey of India, while Lurgan
is believed to be modeled off of A. M. Jacob, a notorious jeweler in Simla. St. Xavier's in Lucknow was probably the source for La Martiniére.

Hopkirk does an excellent job in setting Kim into the Great
Game-the Russo-English rivalry over Afghanistan and the Anglo-French rivalry over the India trade. Throughout the book he also discusses whether Kipling was a racist or not. Unlike many critics who would judge Kipling by today's standards, Hopkirk tries to judge him the mores and values of Victorian England.

That Mr. Hopkirk comes to the study of "Kim" as an historian, and not as an author of literature is immediately apparent to the reader of "Quest for Kim". The prose could hardly be called beautiful, and phrases and large passages are repeated throughout the work. With that fact recognized, Hopkirk's pedestrian prose is certainly sufficient to convey the information he has put together, and even the most ill-formed of his writing cannot cover his deep and passionate love for his subject. And this is what makes "Quest for Kim" such a joy to read, even for one who knows much of what Hopkirk says: his love of the work is contagious and inspiring; it brings pleasure to see how much pleasure he gets from it. Many readers may, as this one was, be uninterested in whether the characters in "Kim" were modelled after real-life contemporaries of Kipling, let alone where these real-life men lived, and yet the sections -- and there are many of them -- seeking out the homes of Colonel Creighton and Lurgan Sahib never fall into dullness because they are buoyed up with their historically interesting descriptions of late 18th-century India and the fun that Hopkirk clearly had looking into the matter.
On finishing "Quest for Kim", one may be left with the feeling that the historical information contained therein could have been greater in both quantity and detail. One will certainly not feel greatly informed on the literary qualities of "Kim", beyond that Hopkirk is extremely impressed by them. "Quest for Kim" is not a great scholarly tome, but it is an enjoyable read, encompassing a light, welcoming introduction to a study of British India and "Kim" itself wrapped in a pleasant narrative of one man's brief travels through Pakistan and India.

Peter Hopkirk has made Central Asia and the Asian subcontinent his area of interest and the result has been several fine histories about various aspects of the area. Here he returns to the Great Game, that shadowy world of intrigue between Englan and Czarist Russia, but with a slight twist. Using Rudyard Kipling's classic novel KIM he takes us on an journey in search of the true nature of the people, places and events in the book. Traveling India and the Nortwest Territories he takes us to the real places and introduces us to the real people on whom many of the characters in the novel were closely modeled on. In the end the Great Game in reality was even more fanatastic than Kipling's fictional creation with many of his outlandish characters coming off quite subdued in comparison to the real ones. As usual Hopkirk's style is that of a story teller and he keeps the narrative moving along quite nicely. In the end good history and armchair travel in one book.

Hopkirk does a wonderful job in this work of illuminating some of the less well known chapters of the first world war. As usual, his writing is very good and he does a pretty good job of holding the reader's interest. However, it is on this last point that this work is a half step below Hopkirk's other works on Central Asia.

The nature of this book is such that the history of a world war must be told to put into context the events that Hopkirk describes. As a result, Hopkirk is not able to do what works so very well for him in his other writings. In the others, he is able to focus on one or two charecters at a time and tell their story in a very engaging way. Here, he must combine characters and events and a bit of the good story telling power of Hopkirk's other works are lost.

But, by all means, do pick up the book and read it.

When it comes to history, many of the most engrossing books are what the French call "haute vulgarisation"-popularizing studies with an emphasis on a tale well-told. Like Hidden Fire is this; but it is more too, rescuing from obscurity a forgotten yet critical series of events during World War I.

Hopkirk recounts how the Germans and Ottomans worked together from 1914 on to dislodge the British and Russians from the Caucasus, Iran, and Central Asia. For the Germans, this was the route to India; for the Turks, it offered a Pan-Turkic realm. Even readers versed in twentieth-century history will probably shake their head in amazement at their own ignorance of the German role in this jihad, a story full of drama and memorable figures. Highlights include the career of Wilhelm Wassmuss, "the German Lawrence," singlehandedly causing havoc for the British in southern Iran; the Niedermeyer-Hentig expedition to Afghanistan which came close to lighting the fuse of revolution in India; the near-success of Prince Henry of Reuss, Germany's minister to the shah's court, in bringing Iran into the war on the Entente side; and how the loss of a German codebook in the Persian desert contributed to the United States entry into the war. In addition, Hopkirk also tells the remarkable tale of British diplomats, spies, and soldiers in the anti-Soviet rebellion in Baku.

The Great War so profoundly changed the Middle East that its consequences continue to be felt; therefore, the events described in Like Hidden Fire need urgently to be incorporated into the standard history.

Middle East Quarterly, March 1995

If you are a Hopkirk addict like me, you will breeze through another one of his exciting narratives of Central Asian History and love every minute of it. Fire up the kettle, throw on your fez and curl up in your favourite reading chair as Hopkirk takes you on a true-life tale of derring do against German and Communist Agents in central Asia in World War I.

Russia is the ally and the German is the new encroacher on British Empire and the Imperial Indian Raj. Hopkirk of course picks his cast with a loving hand and we have the usual sort of British imperial heroes, speaking the local language, gaining favour from locals with their fair and firm hand, and doling out the intrigue in dollops.

But... Hopkirk give us detial of the German Spies in this area as well. Some like Niedermeyer, the German Lawrence and his associate Hentig on their overland journey to Kabul to try to convince the Emir to throw in his lot with the Turkish and Germans and attack British India. The details of his adventures in the Persian deserts and his sojourn in Kabul make great, fast reading. The heebie-jeebies that his action caused the British and their reaction to it are also adventure writ large.

Hopkirk describes the German/ Turkish attempt to bring down the British Empire with a holy war orchestrated by themselves. It also shows what brittle fibre holy war is made from. In the end the respective ethnic groups in the muslim world acted in their own self interests -- the Persians had no love for a Turkish Empire, the Emir of Afghanistan kept checking which way the wind blew before deciding to remain loyal to Britain. And the Arabs decided that an Englishman (TE Lawrence) held the Key to independence, not their fellow muslims in Constantinople.

Once the mess of the Arab Revolt gutted Turkish Power the British find themselves out of the frying pan and into the fire and intervene in the Caucasus' to try to keep Russia in the war.

The British effort here and the emmiment Victorian personalities are well described and the perfidious Red Reaction and myth-making also exploded by Hopkirk.

In final analysis Hopkirk writes books alive with adventure. I think that Hopkirk had a major problem in delimiting the book. That is a hard thing to do in a work of this kind. Some things such as the British under seige at Al Kut and its eventual fall are directly related to the tales of our heroes on the ground the political outcome later described. Some other details might have made a shorter book (ie, the Zimmerman Telegram recounting) but they are still interesting and indirectly related to the tale Hopkirk is telling.

If you have the ability to honestly judge it then there are a few flaws that should be noted, but they do not at all detract from the flow of the read or the historical smorgasbord laid out before you.

In final analysis this book encorporates the widest canvas that Hopkirk has used to date, the World War. That necessitates more detail on distant, but related elements. These may not be as well organised as they could be, but, because Hopkirk writes them, are always highly interesting.

A good tea-time book. Something that one looks forward to....