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Craig Murray

Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game Hardcover – 8 Nov. 2016

by Craig Murray (Author)

4.5 95 ratings

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This is an astonishing true tale of espionage, journeys in disguise, secret messages, double agents, assassinations and sexual intrigue. Alexander Burnes was one of the most accomplished spies Britain ever produced and the main antagonist of the Great Game as Britain strove with Russia for control of Central Asia and the routes to the Raj. There are many lessons for the present day in this tale of the folly of invading Afghanistan and Anglo-Russian tensions in the Caucasus. Murray's meticulous study has unearthed original manuscripts from Montrose to Mumbai to put together a detailed study of how British secret agents operated in India. The story of Burnes' life has a cast of extraordinary figures, including Queen Victoria, King William IV, Earl Grey, Benjamin Disraeli, Lola Montez, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Among the unexpected discoveries are that Alexander and his brother James invented the myths about the Knights Templars and Scottish Freemasons which are the foundation of the Da Vinci Code; and that the most famous nineteenth-century scholar of Afghanistan was a double agent for Russia.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Birlinn Ltd
Publication date

8 Nov. 2016
Dimensions

16.51 x 4.45 x 24.77 cm
ISBN-10

1780273177
ISBN-13

978-1780273174
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Product description

Review

'Murray's book is a terrific read. He has done full justice to the life of a remarkable British hero, without ignoring his faults' --Peter Oborne, Daily Mail

'If you are a fan of the Flashman series of books, you will be gripped by the story of this British spy' --Hannah Ferret, The Sun

'This is a fascinating book ... his research has been prodigious, both in libraries and on foot. He knows a huge amount about Burnes's life and work' --Allan Massie, The Scotsman

About the Author

Craig Murray is an author (Murder in Samarkand), broadcaster and human rights activist. He was a member of the British Diplomatic Service for 20 years, British Ambassador to Uzbekistan 2002-2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee 2007-2010.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Birlinn Ltd (8 Nov. 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1780273177
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1780273174
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.51 x 4.45 x 24.77 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 504,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 167 in British Historical Biographies 1701-1900
- 310 in Indian Subcontinent Historical Biographies
- 350 in Historical Biographies 1701-1900

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4.5 95 ratings

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4.5 out of 5

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Gordon Toumaniantz

A British spy in Afghanistan

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 December 2022

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A brilliant man defeated by arrogant British colonial "diplomacy"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 March 2020

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Interesting and much-needed biography of Alexander Burnes who discovered Bokhara and died a gruesome death (witnessed by none other than Harry Flashman; no other witnesses lived to tell the tale) during the short-lived British occupation of the world's worst country, Afghanistan during the first Afghan war.

The book describes Burnes's Scottish background in some detail. At 16, Burnes ended up in India where he spent much of the 1820s in a dusty corner of what is now Northwest India. He finally got noticed by exploring the Thar desert (in what is now Rajasthan) and doing useful 'political' work: building up relationships with local rulers and using these for all sorts of good ends, such as reducing banditry in the region. His next target was the Indus river, which he proved easily navigable, while again doing useful work in encouraging the emirs of Sind to accept the East India Company as their protector. Celebrity only followed when he traveled much further, through Ranjit Singh's Sikh state and Afghanistan to the then impossibly exotic city of Bokhara.

The major part of the book deals with the run-up to the first Afghan war. Burnes is sent again to 'Cabool' where he becomes convinced that there is an imminent Russian threat. He advises against a British scheme for regime change meant to turn Afghanistan into a reliable ally against the Russians, but the powers that be ignore him and decide to invade. Rather than throwing in the towel, Burnes loyally joins the invasion force as a political officer and tries to make the best of it - with dramatic consequences.

This is a very good, thorough, well-researched and well-written biography that I greatly enjoyed. The author, a notorious left-winger, Scottish separatist and ruthless human rights fanatic, makes no attempt at all to hide his righteous indignation at the British (and in fact, to a large extent, Scottish) involvement in India and surroundings two centuries ago. Oddly, this does not in any way irritate or distract - in fact, his many waspy comments on the perceived failings of British colonial rule are mostly enjoyable. All in all, highly recommended. On to the next book by a left-wing Scotsman: William Dalrymple's "Return of a King".

4 people found this helpful

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Dermott Hayes

Spies, Bullets and Opium.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 December 2019

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Craig Murray is neither a writer nor a historian yet he brings to this book, a biography of an espionage pioneer and architect, Sikunder Burnes, meticulous detail and a verve for colourful scene setting. At times that attention to the minutiae, testimony to the author's own role of 'administrator', becomes his undoing and the story bogs down, like Burnes sometimes did in his travels. Nonetheless, this account sheds more light on the British Empire and how it was fashioned on Spies, Bullets and Opium.

2 people found this helpful

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john

Hard to see the point

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 January 2020

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This seems an odd subject at first to be covered by an ardent Scottish Nationalist, whose political views at times border on the extreme. The author has a visceral hatred of all things "British".

Burnes was a Scotsman and on the face of it a pillar of the British Establishment. Why then would Murray be so fond of him? His is still an odd choice of subject. It is hard to see how an early nineteenth century surveyor, which is essentially what Burnes was, would excite anyone.

All is revealed. He is in fact a double agent in the pay of the Russians. Not really a pillar of the British Establishment at all! Aha, so he fits the bill perfectly. A Scotsman who was a traitor to Murray's reviled British Empire.

It is a well written book, so I am giving it three stars. But it is a boring book too and I find the author's extreme Scottish nationalism - the author's raison d'etre for this book - to be quite nauseating.

3 people found this helpful

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Robin

Interesting and informative history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 February 2021

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Maybe too much detail but informative

One person found this helpful

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Mr. G. Dobson

Interesting Subject But Poorly Written - I'd given up by 1832

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2020

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I decided to buy this book after re-reading "The Great Game" and hoping to find more detail on one of its major figures. Sadly, the book from the start was bogged down in too much detail. I know the author was trying to full flesh out the background, upbringing and life of Burnes, but he gets so involved in detail that he fails to give an overall background to events. For example, the cover story for the Indus expedition makes reference to the gifts for Ranjit Singh but we are not told who he is, where he is and what he controls until the expedition is virtually over.

Likewise some maps would not have gone amiss to allow us to keep track of where Burnes was actually travelling.

Having read Hopkirk and others I had enough of an idea to be able to keep up with this book but it is poorly written with too much attention to minutiae and not outlining of "the big picture". I’m afraid by page 76 I’d given up. Sad, I know, but life is too short to struggle though a book, hoping it will get more readable. Try Peter Hopkirk instead.

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Katastrofa

Very relevant for modern times

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2017

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It is a detailed account of the life of a man who was at the centre of the First Afghan War. The book shows in details how the British imperial policy of this period had been formed (including the involvement of celebrated liberals like JS Mill). Murray shows interesting parallels with the US/UK post-9/11 foreign policy towards the Muslim world.

6 people found this helpful

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Peter M.

Heavy going

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2020

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An enormous amount of research has gone into this book but unfortunately not enough rigorous editing. Craig Murray displays the extent of his research on every page and he quotes extensively from the materials that he has gathered. However, the mass of detail results in an incoherent biography.
There are only two maps in the book, so it is almost impossible to establish the location of the places mentioned and the areas of control of the different local leaders.
The author extrapolates some of Alexander Burnes's experiences in dealing with officialdom with the way he (Craig Murray) was treated by the UK's Foreign Office in the early 2000s in Uzbekistan. This adds nothing to the story of Burnes. Good editing should have eliminated these irrelevancies.
Alexander Burnes definitely deserves a good biography, but this is not it.

2 people found this helpful

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Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game Hardcover – 8 Nov. 2016

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