Rating: 
Summary: WELL WORTH THE CHASE
Review: Simply, beautifully written, takes you THERE...I've been to India, many of those places he's written about, and he recreates them on the page like a stereographic synaesthetic pop-up from the page. Made me laugh really hard, too, unexpectedly. Full of sights, sounds, history-in-living color, intrigue and mystery. An ideal read for armchair backpackers and yogis, and for anyone without an armchair, for that matter.
Rating:
Summary: Travel Writing at its Very Best
Review: This is not a book about diamonds. Instead it is the chronicle of a wonderful offbeat trip through India tracing the path that the Koh-i-noor diamond may have followed.The author is that rarest and most estimable kind of travel writer who acts as the reader's eyes and ears. When Rushby describes a scene you see it, hear it, smell it and feel it. When he describes a conversation he captures the person's speech patterns, their personal idiosyncrasies, and makes them come alive. Unlike many other current travel writers, Rushby does not waste your time with pages about himself and his personal problems or his reactions to the people and places he visits. Instead, he gives you enough data so that you can make up your own mind about the poeple and places he describes. And what fascinating places they are! Southern Indian haunts of small time diamond smugglers, the ruined palaces of Mughal emperors, the studies of eccentric professors, the shabby apartments of claiments to the wealth of deposed rajas. All these are there and more, as the author moves through a series of cheap hotels via questionable transport of the sort that the reader loves to hear about but is glad not to have to actually use. This book reminded me a lot of Eric Hansen's Motoring with Mohammed, another of my favorite travel books. It's a definite "must read" for any serious armchair traveller!
Rating: 
Summary: i enjoyed it, but where can i find more on the diamond?
Review: this was a really interesting book about india and the story of the koh-i-noor diamond which is in the british crown jewels. I really enjoyed it, particularly the historical detail on the diamond's amazing history, but i'd love to know where i could find out more about it. I'm going to london next year , so maybe i'll go see it.
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