The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

Rating:
Summary: Thought would be related to Gary Cooper movie... it is not!
Review: Got it trough a secondhand bookshop thinking (wrong again boys&girls) it would be moderately related to the excellent adventure&action film of Gary Cooper "Lives of a bengal lancer"...
Well, they have nothing in common a part from the title!... AND BOTH ARE VERY GOOD!...
Let me explain, is very strange to buy a book thinking it would be the usual good yarn about the "british ruling race" policing the Empire and find instead an autobiographic book from an open minded briton clever enough to be interested in indian religion/mysthicism and culture... WHAT A GOOD SURPRISE! (AND GOOD READ!)...
It has a poetry (not that I specially like poetry...) quite astounding in a brit cavalry officer!, AND NO HE DOES NOT GO NATIVE (for Godsake pay attention!), he simply (?) is capable to LEARN...
I do not know if the late George Harrison had read this book before been "hindufluenced"...
QUITE A SURPRISE AND ONE OF THE FEW BOOKS FOR KEEPS...

Rating:
Summary: Thought would be related to Gary Cooper movie... it is not!
Review: Got it trough a secondhand bookshop thinking (wrong again boys&girls) it would be moderately related to the excellent adventure&action film of Gary Cooper "Lives of a bengal lancer"...
Well, they have nothing in common a part from the title!... AND BOTH ARE VERY GOOD!...
Let me explain, is very strange to buy a book thinking it would be the usual good yarn about the "british ruling race" policing the Empire and find instead an autobiographic book from an open minded briton clever enough to be interested in indian religion/mysthicism and culture... WHAT A GOOD SURPRISE! (AND GOOD READ!)...
It has a poetry (not that I specially like poetry...) quite astounding in a brit cavalry officer!, AND NO HE DOES NOT GO NATIVE (for Godsake pay attention!), he simply (?) is capable to LEARN...
I do not know if the late George Harrison had read this book before been "hindufluenced"...
QUITE A SURPRISE AND ONE OF THE FEW BOOKS FOR KEEPS...

Rating:
Summary: An interesting tale in turn-of-the century India
Review: What a great book. Yeats-Brown is an upper-class officer in a colonial regiment in India, and his writing style is reminiscent of Sassoon, Manning and Fussell, although not quite on their level. However, his story of life in a colonial regiment is very familiar to those officers serving in England...the lifestyle (pre WWI) of polo, hunting and life at the mess is very consistent.
Where I found this book intriguing is Yeats-Brown's mobilization for WWI. The book takes interesting turns as he is sent to Europe, then back to Mesopotamia, but not as a Lancer but as an observer for the newly formed Royal Flying Corps.
I believe Yeats-Brown has written other books about his captivity with the Turks, but this book has a good narrative of his time as a prisoner in wartime Turkey.
THe book concludes with Yeats-Brown discovering the religions of India, and his eagerness to learn their secrets. Very interesting account of colonial India by someone who was a bit more observant of local customs than the average British officer.
Easy to read...highly recommended

Rating:
Summary: An interesting tale in turn-of-the century India
Review: What a great book. Yeats-Brown is an upper-class officer in a colonial regiment in India, and his writing style is reminiscent of Sassoon, Manning and Fussell, although not quite on their level. However, his story of life in a colonial regiment is very familiar to those officers serving in England...the lifestyle (pre WWI) of polo, hunting and life at the mess is very consistent.
Where I found this book intriguing is Yeats-Brown's mobilization for WWI. The book takes interesting turns as he is sent to Europe, then back to Mesopotamia, but not as a Lancer but as an observer for the newly formed Royal Flying Corps.
I believe Yeats-Brown has written other books about his captivity with the Turks, but this book has a good narrative of his time as a prisoner in wartime Turkey.
THe book concludes with Yeats-Brown discovering the religions of India, and his eagerness to learn their secrets. Very interesting account of colonial India by someone who was a bit more observant of local customs than the average British officer.
Easy to read...highly recommended