The Last Englishmen, Deborah Baker
The Last Englishmen, Deborah Baker
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Last Englishmen
Love, War, and the End of Empire

Author: Deborah Baker

Narrator: James Cameron Stewart

Unabridged: 14 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/21/2018


Synopsis

John Auden was a pioneering geologist of the Himalayas. Michael Spender was the first to draw a detailed map of the North Face of Mount Everest. While their younger brothers—W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender—achieved literary fame, they vied to be included on an expedition that would deliver Everest's summit to an Englishman, a quest that had become a metaphor for Britain's struggle to maintain power over India. To this rivalry was added another: In the summer of 1938 both men fell in love with a painter named Nancy Sharp. Her choice would determine where each man's wartime loyalties would lie.

Set in Calcutta, London, the glacier-locked wilds of the Karakoram, and on Everest itself, The Last Englishmen is also the story of a generation. The cast of this exhilarating drama includes Indian and English writers and artists, explorers and Communist spies, Die Hards and Indian nationalists, political rogues and police informers. Key among them is a highborn Bengali poet named Sudhin Datta, a melancholy soul torn, like many of his generation, between hatred of the British Empire and a deep love of European literature, whose life would be upended by the arrival of war on his Calcutta doorstep.

About Deborah Baker

Deborah Baker is the author of Making a Farm; In Extremis, which was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography; A Blue Hand; and The Convert, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. She lives in India and New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jill

There was a lot happening in Raj India from 1900 til the partition in 1947 after independence, and Englishmen were usually somehow involved. In Deborah Baker's new book, "The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire", she covers both individuals and groups, Indian and British, who were impo......more

Two things strike you after reading this work. Firstly, the monumental effort in terms of research that has gone into its making. Secondly, it is Deborah Baker's writing style. Although the book is a historical biography for it deals with historical events in Europe and British India, it is written......more

Great testament to the importance of book recommendations from industry experts--never would have picked this up otherwise, and I loved it! The Last Englishmen came out in Aug 2018 from Graywolf (paperback July 2019); I tend to read most of Graywolf's fiction catalog, but Caroline Nitz gave me an AR......more