
Kilt for Hire - pepys
https://literaryreview.co.uk/kilt-for-hire
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mr_luc
This was an interesting period of history, and I'm really looking forward to
reading _Kilt For Hire_! I can't believe there's a book about Gardener now.

I always try to make a pair of books for a period I'm interested in: one
comprehensive history of the major events and people of the period, and one
personal story. (For instance, the late 1800s/early 1900s incl WW1, I have
"Dreadnought" by RKM and "Storm of Steel" by Junger).

For the time before and during the first Afghan War, I can highly recommend:

1) Maybe the best-researched, most vivid, and most comprehensive overall
telling of the before, during and after of the First Afghan War: the book
_Return of a King,_ by Dalrymple. It incorporates a lot of surprisingly-
recently-translated documents from libraries in modern-day Pakistan, which
became more interesting to historians post-2001.

2) A personal story, that of the American Josiah Harlan, the book _Josiah The
Great_. Like Gardener was a wanderer and soldier of fortune, but who unlike
Gardener was the inspiration for Kipling's short story written after the
publication of the first part of his memoirs (and later movie with M. Caine
and S. Connery). His story has a lot of detail, because he was a weird duck
who kept to himself, brought a personal library with him, and took extensive
notes for his memoirs. In fact he's a high-quality primary source in book (1).
As a result, there's a lot of detail. You can really feel the personal danger
Harlan was in, and just how often he bluffed his way through situations that
could easily have killed him.

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wesako
The photo of Gardner mentioned at the start:

[https://atechnologyjobisnoexcuse.com/files/2012/10/tumblr_m9...](https://atechnologyjobisnoexcuse.com/files/2012/10/tumblr_m9u3epSS1L1qa2j8co1_1280.jpg)

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owlninja
I will never look this badass

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cossatot
At least not in a pair of Tom's.

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supernumerary
Who is behind Kashi House the publishers of this book? Their stuff seems like
hard-core Orientalism?

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bbctol
From googling around: looks to be based in England, and focused on books about
the Sikhs, or Punjab generally.

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supernumerary
Yeah, but suppose it's run by Lord Shufflepuff ex. Major 34th Lance Hussars.

