- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (19 Jun 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006552153
- ISBN-13: 978-0006552154
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,182,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘This is a book about gems that is also a gem of a book’
Sunday Times
Product Description
Kevin Rushby pursues the dramatic career of the Koh-i-Noor, the most renowned diamond of India, through the relics of great kingdoms to the frozen heights of the Himalayas.
In the beginning diamonds came from India, nowhere else. And the greatest of those ancient stones cut a deep and bloody path across the history and legends of the country. The Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, has been fought over, cursed and occasionally lost. Seized by British agents eager to please the young Queen Victoria, it now lies in the Tower of London, its ownership still disputed.
Kevin Rushby follows the trail of this great jewel on a journey that takes him to many fascinating corners of India and to the heart of Indian culture. Along the way he meets the dealers, smugglers and petty crooks who populate modern India’s diamond trade, and finds that the depths of human greed and the heights of spritual aspiration are both bound up in India’s long association with diamonds. The historical characters are no less fascinating, from the bloodthirsty tyrants who built mountains of human heads, to the man-god Krishna – each contributes to the gradually forming picture of the story of the diamond, a story that permeates Rushby’s own experience of modern India on a journey that becomes increasingly dangerous as it progresses.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
After his debut book, the excellent Eating the Flowers of Paradise, Kevin Rushby has set himself a very hard act to follow. The author is now on less well-known territory as he sets out to trace the origin diamonds in India, in particular the world famous Koh-i-nor diamond. True to his adventurous spirit, he soon ventures off the beaten track in Southern India, where he injures his elbow in a bus crash in which the passengers force the bus driver to continue the journey despite causing the crash through his falling asleep, because 'it is his duty'. This book has a sense of crime fiction about it, as the author investigates through various channels where diamonds were historically mined. He encounters many people who appear unprepared to talk about diamonds, and has difficulties being unable to speak the local language, but manages to ascertain that there is some small scale prospecting and possibly illicit dealing taking place. While journeying northwards, he meets many colourful Indian characters, takes part in a Jain pilgrimage and goes in search of the rare and endangered Asian lion with a former maharajah. The story, packed with historical insights into India, takes a surreal twist when the author is mugged and drugged in Delhi, which he accepts so philosophically that the reader is obliged to remind himself that he is reading factual travelogue and not crime fiction. This book takes you well off the tourist trail and puts things in an enlightening historical context. The author does not attempt to make this into an adventure travel book, but he scratches below the surface of Indian life while being culturally sensitive, and his modesty ensures a refreshing lack of hyperbole.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you are into ancient curses and legends this is a great travel book. Kevin rushby is always an interesting and readable travel writer, but with this book he has picked a perfect background story for his book. The legend of the Kohi noor would make a great movie or piece of historical fiction, and it is surprising that it has only been the focus of travel writing, but that aside, rusby has done it justice. As others have said below, the book could have stood more historical facts, but the other more detailed travel aspects are still entralling - buy it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
so0me things kind of pass you by, like the fact that there is a diamond in the crown jewels apparently cursing the british royal family. Still Mr Rushby illuminated me in this fascinating travel book
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
What a fascinating story
I love this travel book, but, like a good meal it left me hungry for more. Where can i find out more about the Koh-i-Noor diamond?
Published on 21 Nov 2001 by J. Nimmo
take me next time
next time rushby goes on one of his travels i'd like him to pack me in his rucksack. This was an enthralling book, and i don't read alot of travel writing. Read more
Published on 17 May 2000
A weird but amazing reason to pack your bags
I can't think of a more unusual reason for packing a bag and going off to India, but I can identify with Rushby. Read more
Published on 13 April 2000
The only book on the kohi-noor?
more history and less travel might have improved this book, but i still very much enjoyed it. I have since looked everywhere for more information on the kohi noor diamond, but... Read more
Published on 12 April 2000
a refreshing change
it's hard to write a decent travel book these days, there are so few places which haven't been inundated by tourists. Read more
Published on 11 April 2000
another great journey
kevin rushby certainly gets up to some odd stuff, i read his last book about qat chewing in the yemen and enjoyed this one just as much, particularly all the history about the... Read more
Published on 5 April 2000
Extraordinary history, great travel writing
I was told about the koh-i-Noor when i visited the Taj Mahal with my wife last year, but couldn't find any books about it until now. Read more
Published on 4 April 2000
very interesting
i enjoyed this strange travelogue about the authors investigation of the diamond industry in india, and his tracing of the koh-i-noor diamond's history, (the legendary jewel... Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2000 by lizneser@aol.com
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