Hall of a Thousand Columns

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 SnowsWere he to jump on a camel for his second volume in the great traveller's footsteps ... he would surely be the Burton of his day - Praise for previous works The SpectatorMackintosh-Smith has all the assets a travel writer needs: erudition without pretension; rather subversive good humour without relentless jokiness; and a descriptive eye capable of sketching complex detail in a few telling lines of ink - Praise for previous work, The Daily TelegraphEsoteric, 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 HansenAs a writer and traveller Tim Mackintosh-Smith has two great gifts: he slips effortlessly between the past and the present, and he takes us with him. This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air. - Charles AllenTim 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 andFunny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic - Barnaby Rogerson, Literary ReviewPart travel book, part biography, part detective story, this is a gripping read and a fitting testament to the Prince of Travellers. - Wanderlust