Review
'This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' (Charles Allen, author of Duel in the Snows 20041027)
'Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20041208)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20041101)
'Funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic' (Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review 20050301)
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . Mackintosh-Smith's is not in doubt . . . Rich and fascinating' (Sunday Times 20050301)
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith . . . has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes . . . an engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour and quirkiness' (Guardian 20050320)
'A book that travels in time as well as in space . . . Intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with [the author's] own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India' (Daily Mail 20050416)
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text.' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent 20050408)
'This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' (Charles Allen 20050621)
'A deft use of language, anecdote, scholarship and a daunting appreciation for all that is wonderful and absurd in the world. Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20050611)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20050312)
'A first-rate travel book, enlivened by the author's erudition, subtle humour, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject' (Traveller )
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . [Mackintosh-Smith's] talent is not in doubt. . . . The author appears as an enthusiastic researcher, a thirsty drinker, and a traveller who allows little to deter him from his path . . . Rich and fascinating' (Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times )
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith ... has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes. But above all, he engages with ideas, and his aim is that of the novelist - to send a bucket down into the subconscious.' (Guardian Weekly )
'Wisecracking . . . One of the most enjoyable things about Mackintosh-Smith's narrative is the way it intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with his own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India. A book that travels in time as well as in space' (Daily Mail )
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text . . . This is an engrossing book' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent )
'Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20041208)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20041101)
'Funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic' (Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review 20050301)
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . Mackintosh-Smith's is not in doubt . . . Rich and fascinating' (Sunday Times 20050301)
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith . . . has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes . . . an engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour and quirkiness' (Guardian 20050320)
'A book that travels in time as well as in space . . . Intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with [the author's] own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India' (Daily Mail 20050416)
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text.' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent 20050408)
'This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' (Charles Allen 20050621)
'A deft use of language, anecdote, scholarship and a daunting appreciation for all that is wonderful and absurd in the world. Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' (Eric Hansen 20050611)
'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' (Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20050312)
'A rich texture of multiple perception . . . Beneath this funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic travelogue there is a darkly tragic theme. For interwoven with the real-time journey of Mackintosh-Smith through India is an enquiry into the nature of Islam in India'
(Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review 20051215)'A first-rate travel book, enlivened by the author's erudition, subtle humour, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject' (Traveller )
'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . [Mackintosh-Smith's] talent is not in doubt. . . . The author appears as an enthusiastic researcher, a thirsty drinker, and a traveller who allows little to deter him from his path . . . Rich and fascinating' (Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times )
'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith ... has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes. But above all, he engages with ideas, and his aim is that of the novelist - to send a bucket down into the subconscious.' (Guardian Weekly )
'Wisecracking . . . One of the most enjoyable things about Mackintosh-Smith's narrative is the way it intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with his own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India. A book that travels in time as well as in space' (Daily Mail )
'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text . . . This is an engrossing book' (Ziauddin Sardar, Independent )
'An engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour, quirkiness and the way in which the country constantly juxtaposes the extraordinary with the mundane'
(Guardian )'The wellspring of his writing is his profound immersion in a Muslim culture . . . the strength of his work derives from his position as both insider and outsider in the Arab world . . . Mackintosh-Smith is in that same learned yet good-humoured tradition [as Leigh Fermor]'
(Daily Telegraph )'An engaging homage to one of travel writing's founding fathers'
(Henry Day. London Review of Books )Independent
'They make, despite the dividing centuries, a good team ... This is a journey across time as much as land'
