Background
John Keay was born in Devon, England, to parents of Scottish origin.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
book
Into India by John Keay (1999-06-15)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N5JDMHM/?tag=2022091-20
Eccentric Travellers: Excursions with Seven Extraordinary Figures from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
(Book by John Keay)
Book by John Keay
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0874772761/?tag=2022091-20
The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company Hardcover May 1, 1994
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010EW8LX6/?tag=2022091-20
Eccentric Travellers - Excursions With Seven Extaordinary Figures From The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029ARG10/?tag=2022091-20
Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East
( The Western powers--Britain, France and the USA--discov...)
The Western powers--Britain, France and the USA--discovered the imperatives for intervention that have plunged the Middle East region into crisis ever since. It was then, too, that most of the region's modern-day states were created and their regimes forged; and then that their management by the West earned abiding resentment. Sowing the Wind tells of how and why this happened. The subject is painful and essentially sombre, but John Keay illuminates it with lucid analysis and anecdotes. This is that rarest of works, a history with humour, an epic with attitude, a dirge that delights. Here are unearthed a host of unregarded precedents, from the Gulf's first gusher to the first aerial assault on Baghdad, the first of Syria's innumerable coups, and the first terrorist outrages and suicide bombers. Little known figures--junior officers, contractors, explorers, spies--contest the orthodoxies of Arabist giants like T.E. Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Glubb Pasha and Loy Henders Four Roosevelts juggle with the fate of nations. Authors as alien as E.M. Forster and Arthur Koestler add their testimony. And in Antonius and Weizmann, the Mufti and Begin, Arab is inexorably juxtaposed with Jew. Pertinent, scholarly and irreverent, Sowing the Wind provides an ambitious insight into the making of the world's most fraught arena.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393335089/?tag=2022091-20
Eccentric Travellers by John Keay (1982-08-06)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K923AHS/?tag=2022091-20
The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company
(The most infamous of the trading companies established by...)
The most infamous of the trading companies established by the great European powers, the English East India Company was the world's greatest trading power. For more than two centuries, they dominated world trade, raised armies and demolished nations. Now comes this major new book--a surprise hit in England. Photos and maps.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0025611690/?tag=2022091-20
Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland
(Some 3500 entries, totalling 750,000 words written by Joh...)
Some 3500 entries, totalling 750,000 words written by John and Julia Keay and nearly 150 expert contributors (including public figures such as Lord Home, David Steel and Fitzroy MacLean and a host of academics), describe all the main topographical, historical, social, architectural and industrial features of Scotland from A-Z. In addition, the book includes biographical entries on eminent Scots men and women of the past.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0002550822/?tag=2022091-20
The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture) by John Keay (2006-07-15)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NH00EBQ/?tag=2022091-20
The Royal Geographical Society history of world exploration
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P8FHZK/?tag=2022091-20
The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture)
( The Spice Route is one of history’s greatest anomalies:...)
The Spice Route is one of history’s greatest anomalies: shrouded in mystery, it existed long before anyone knew of its extent or configuration. Spices came from lands unseen, possibly uninhabitable, and almost by definition unattainable; that was what made them so desirable. Yet more livelihoods depended on this pungent traffic, more nations participated in it, more wars were fought for it, and more discoveries resulted from it than from any other global exchange. Epic in scope, marvelously detailed, laced with drama, The Spice Route spans three millennia and circles the world to chronicle the history of the spice trade. With the aid of ancient geographies, travelers’ accounts, mariners’ handbooks, and ships’ logs, John Keay tells of ancient Egyptians who pioneered maritime trade to fetch the incense of Arabia, Graeco-Roman navigators who found their way to India for pepper and ginger, Columbus who sailed west for spices, de Gama, who sailed east for them, and Magellan, who sailed across the Pacific on the exact same quest. A veritable spice race evolved as the west vied for control of the spice-producing islands, stripping them of their innocence and the spice trade of its mystique. This enthralling saga, progressing from the voyages of the ancients to the blue-water trade that came to prevail by the seventeenth century, transports us from the dawn of history to the ends of the earth.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0520254163/?tag=2022091-20
Eccentric Travellers
(Madder than the maddest scientists, eccentric travellers ...)
Madder than the maddest scientists, eccentric travellers made exploration popular. Who could resist the naturalist who wrestled with boa constrictors, the evangelist who stomped the Hindu Kush stark naked, or the vitriolic 'Governor Gallstone' who forsook the American Indians for a horse-drawn odyssey with monkey, parakeet and long-suffering family?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0719561647/?tag=2022091-20
Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East by John Keay (2003-09-01)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K3KY71Y/?tag=2022091-20
When Men and Mountains Meet: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1820-75 by John Keay (1978-03-30)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JXSI1IW/?tag=2022091-20
China: A History
( Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or...)
Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or people; China defines itself in terms of history. Taking into account the country's unrivaled, voluminous tradition of history writing, John Keay has composed a vital and illuminating overview of the nation's complex and vivid past. Keay's authoritative history examines 5,000 years in China, from the time of the Three Dynasties through Chairman Mao and the current economic transformation of the country. Crisp, judicious, and engaging, China is the classic single-volume history for anyone seeking to understand the present and future of this immensely powerful nation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465025188/?tag=2022091-20
Last Post: The End of Empire in the Far East
(In the East, as recently as 1930, half the world's popula...)
In the East, as recently as 1930, half the world's population was subjected to Dutch, British, French or American colonial rule. Two generations later the West's empires in the East are extinct. Instead, the Orient has become the "Pacific miracle", a catch phrase for all things modern and dynamic. In this survey, John Keay draws on the writing and reminiscences of contemporaries, both rulers and ruled, to chart the extinction of empire. From the 1930 surrender of Weihaiwei ("the other Hong Kong") to the 1997 return of Hong Kong itself, he explores how the shared experiences of recession and war drew the very different empires of the Far East together. The author argues that the imperial construct simply became outdated. Delving into the origins and operation of empire in the Far East, he discovers a continuum of economic and commercial growth. The book covers such "backwaters of empire" as Bali, Borneo and the Yangtze to the "show-pieces" of Singapore, Manila and Saigon, and such bizarre imperial personalities ranging from Douglas MacArthur to Dirk Bogarde. They are confronted by an array of flamboyant nationalists including Ho Chi Minh, Sukarno and Magsaysay. Between Somerset Maugham's Malaya and Graham Greene's Vietnam, the West's attitudes to empire are seen to change; but the subject peoples of the East it is Japan's brief triumph in World War II and Mao's victory in China which cleared the road to independence.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0719553466/?tag=2022091-20
The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture) Paperback September 17, 2007
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010EUY862/?tag=2022091-20
Indonesia: From Sabang to Merauke
(Journeying largely by bus and on foot, John Keay travelle...)
Journeying largely by bus and on foot, John Keay travelled from west to east across the Indonesian archipelago for four months, and in this book he recounts his experiences. From the forests and the rice-fields, half-forgotten kingdoms of a glorious antiquity assume contemporary relevance; from the coastal plains and myriad isles come tales of trade and trauma which knit the nation together; and from more recent history tumble the bizarre celebrities - generals, film stars, travellers, temptresses, anthropologists and demagogues - who have called the country theirs. Keay's other books include "Into India" and "The Honourable Company". He is the general editor of "The Royal Geographical Society's History of World Exploration", and joint editor of "Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland".
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1852835451/?tag=2022091-20
The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India Was Mapped and Everest Was Named
(Used - Like New)
Used - Like New
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0007481179/?tag=2022091-20
Highland Drove by John Keay (1984-09-27)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K92WQDW/?tag=2022091-20
The Gilgit Game: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas 1865-95
(The exploration and appropriation of the wilderness in th...)
The exploration and appropriation of the wilderness in the heart of the Western Himalayas has become known as the "Gilgit Game" in recognition of its importance as a crucial episode in the "Great Game"--the century-long rivalry between Russia and British India for control of Central Asia. Indeed, authors from Kipling to Masters have treated this struggle as the epitome of this competition between nations. But as John Keay shows in this fascinating and readable account of an exciting period in colonial India, the real characters in this drama were more than a match for their fictional counterparts. With humor, sympathy, and admiration of this small group of intelligence agents, Keay describes the activities that had such far-reaching repercussions in the region. Through extensive research and his own intimate knowledge of the terrain, Keay sheds new light on the once top secret geographical discoveries made by these men, discoveries they were prevented from publishing during their lifetimes. A fresh look at a little-known aspect of political intrigue, this is the first narrative account of Himalayan exploration set against the backdrop of espionage and military brinkmanship.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195774663/?tag=2022091-20
(The Spice Route: A History ) Author: John Keay Feb-2014
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B010BG42GU/?tag=2022091-20
Eccentric Travellers: Excursions with Seven Extraordinary Figures from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries by John Keay (1983-12-01)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FGNRAE4/?tag=2022091-20
Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland by John Keay (1998-07-01)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019NDQ4M2/?tag=2022091-20
Highland Drove
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0719541050/?tag=2022091-20
The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named by John Keay (20-Aug-2010) Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011T7ITAA/?tag=2022091-20
Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East SOWING THE WIND: THE SEEDS OF CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST By Keay, John ( Author )Sep-01-2003 Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AUR28SU/?tag=2022091-20
John Keay
Edit ProfileEducation
He studied at Ampleforth College in York before going on to read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford.
Career
Among his teachers at Oxford were the historian A. J. P. Taylor and the future playwright Alan Bennett. In 1965 he visited India for the first time. He went to Kashmir for a fortnight"s trout-fishing and liked it so much that he returned the following year, this time for six months.
lieutenant was during his second stay in Kashmir that Keay decided upon writing as a career.
He joined the staff of The Economist and returned to India several times as its political correspondent. He also started contributing stories to British Broadcasting Corporation Radio.
In 1971 he gave up his correspondent"s job in order to write his first book, Into India, which was published in 1973. Keay followed it with two volumes about the European exploration of the Western Himalayas in the 19th century: When Men and Mountains Meet (1977) and The Gilgit Game (1979).
These two books were later combined into a single-volume paperback by John Murray.
In the 1980s he worked for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio as a writer and presenter, and made several documentary series for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 3. He also made programmes for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4. During this time he wrote India Discovered, the story of how British colonialists came to find out about the great artefacts of Indian culture and architecture.
Historian Anna Keay is the daughter of John Keay and grand-daughter of the politician Humphrey Atkins (Julia Keay, née Atkins, is also a writer).
Works
book
-
Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland
(Some 3500 entries, totalling 750,000 words written by Joh...)
-
The Gilgit Game: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas 1865-95
(The exploration and appropriation of the wilderness in th...)
-
Indonesia: From Sabang to Merauke
(Journeying largely by bus and on foot, John Keay travelle...)
-
Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East
( The Western powers--Britain, France and the USA--discov...)
-
The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company
(The most infamous of the trading companies established by...)
-
The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture)
( The Spice Route is one of history’s greatest anomalies:...)
-
Last Post: The End of Empire in the Far East
(In the East, as recently as 1930, half the world's popula...)
-
China: A History
( Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or...)
-
Eccentric Travellers
(Madder than the maddest scientists, eccentric travellers ...)
-
Eccentric Travellers: Excursions with Seven Extraordinary Figures from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
(Book by John Keay)
-
The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India Was Mapped and Everest Was Named
(Used - Like New)
- Into India by John Keay (1999-06-15)
- Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland
- The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company Hardcover May 1, 1994
- Eccentric Travellers - Excursions With Seven Extaordinary Figures From The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries
- Eccentric Travellers by John Keay (1982-08-06)
- The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture) by John Keay (2006-07-15)
- The Royal Geographical Society history of world exploration
- Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East by John Keay (2003-09-01)
- When Men and Mountains Meet: The Explorers of the Western Himalayas, 1820-75 by John Keay (1978-03-30)
- The Spice Route: A History (California Studies in Food and Culture) Paperback September 17, 2007
- Highland Drove by John Keay (1984-09-27)
- (The Spice Route: A History ) Author: John Keay Feb-2014
- Eccentric Travellers: Excursions with Seven Extraordinary Figures from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries by John Keay (1983-12-01)
- Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland by John Keay (1998-07-01)
- Highland Drove
- The Great Arc: The Dramatic Tale of How India was Mapped and Everest was Named by John Keay (20-Aug-2010) Paperback
- Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East SOWING THE WIND: THE SEEDS OF CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE EAST By Keay, John ( Author )Sep-01-2003 Paperback
-
Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland
