Hall of a Thousand Columns - Softcover

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is the author of Travels with a Tangerine and Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land, winner of the 1998 Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Award.

'A very beguiling mix of modern-day travelogue and a history of Magul India' * Sue Baker, Publishing News * 'Brilliant' * Classic FM * 'Blending a passion for writing with a vanished world, he triumphs . . . Splendid . . . I would like to write an essay about this book, it is so good' * Good Book Guide * 'Erudite and entertaining' * Bookseller * 'Beguiling' * Publishing News * 'The indefatigable Mackintosh-Smith continues his pursuit of the great Moroccan traveller' * Conde Nast Traveller * 'Mackintosh-Smith is an entertaining and thoughtful writer' * India Today * 'Mackintosh-Smith is undoubtedly very clever' * The Hindu * 'Interesting' * Folkestone Herald and Dover Express * 'Refreshingly robust . . . Mackintosh-Smith perseveres with good humour, displaying a high tolerance for puns and a poet's ear for "linguistic oxymora" . . . A fascinating journey in good company - a traveller could have no better gift.' * Geographical * 'Mackintosh-Smith's own comments and causeries . . . transform mundane travel writing into the beguiling, the brilliant and the brave. The writing goes beyond descriptive or recollective to include a style - between commentary and epic poetry - that is as individual, as quirky, as IB's own . . . Engrossing . . . Classic' * Melbourne Age * 'The author's research has been thorough, but his tone is often enjoyably light . . . The Hall of a Thousand Columns has achieved what its author intended' * Times Literary Supplement * Remarkable . . . [He] writes so engagingly and with such felicitous phrasing . . . Another triumph, travel writing of the very highest order and the perfect ripsote to any publisher or agent who has been predicting the demise of the genre * Justin Marozzi, The Spectator * 'An engaging homage to one of travel writing's founding fathers' * Henry Day. London Review of Books * Mackintosh-Smith seems to tread a pleasing path between using Ibn-Battutah's work as his personal guide book and taking in his surroundings as they come. The best thing about this book is how the past and the present are mingled * Global magazine * 'The wellspring of his writing is his profound immersion in a Muslim culture . . . the strength of his work derives from his position as both insider and outsider in the Arab world . . . Mackintosh-Smith is in that same learned yet good-humoured tradition [as Leigh Fermor]' * Daily Telegraph * 'An engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour, quirkiness and the way in which the country constantly juxtaposes the extraordinary with the mundane' * Guardian * A thoroughly engaging read . . . Smith writes articulately and with good humour . . . very rewarding * Adventure Travel magazine * This is engrossing writing to transport even the most languid armchair traveller * Daily Express * Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text . . . This is an engrossing book * Ziauddin Sardar, Independent * Wisecracking . . . One of the most enjoyable things about Mackintosh-Smith's narrative is the way it intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with his own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India. A book that travels in time as well as in space * Daily Mail * Tim's aim is to sift tangible history from magical reality . . . Mackintosh-Smith proves the sceptics wrong: India is the Jewel in the Prince of Travellers' turban * The Nehru Centre * Part travel book, part biography, part detective story, this is a gripping read and a fitting testament to the Prince of Travellers. * Wanderlust * With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith ... has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes. But above all, he engages with ideas, and his aim is that of the novelist - to send a bucket down into the subconscious. * Guardian Weekly * Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . [Mackintosh-Smith's] talent is not in doubt. . . . The author appears as an enthusiastic researcher, a thirsty drinker, and a traveller who allows little to deter him from his path . . . Rich and fascinating * Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times * As 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 Allen * Mackintosh-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 Telegraph * A first-rate travel book, enlivened by the author's erudition, subtle humour, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject * Traveller * 'A rich texture of multiple perception . . . Beneath this funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic travelogue there is a darkly tragic theme. For interwoven with the real-time journey of Mackintosh-Smith through India is an enquiry into the nature of Islam in India' * Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review * Were 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 Spectator * 'The author's research has been thorough, but his tone is often enjoyably light . . . The Hall of a Thousand Columns has achieved what its author intended' * Times Literary Supplement * Tim 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 and * Another triumph, travel writing of the very highest order and the perfect ripsote to any publisher or agent who has been predicting the demise of the genre. * The Spectator * A deft use of language, anecdote, scholarship and a daunting appreciation for all that is wonderful and absurd in the world. Esoteric, 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 Hansen * This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air. * Charles Allen * Mackintosh-Smith seems to tread a pleasing path between using Ibn-Battutah's work as his personal guide book and taking in his surroundings as they come. The best thing about this book is how the past and the present are mingled * Global magazine * A thoroughly engaging read . . . Smith writes articulately and with good humour . . . very rewarding * Adventure Travel magazine * Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text. * Ziauddin Sardar, Independent * This is engrossing writing to transport even the most languid armchair traveller. * Daily Express * A book that travels in time as well as in space . . . Intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with [the author's] own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India * Daily Mail * A curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes * Guardian Weekly * With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith . . . has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes . . . an engaging portrait of modern-day India - the charm, humour and quirkiness * Guardian * Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre . . . Mackintosh-Smith's is not in doubt . . . Rich and fascinating * Sunday Times * Tim's aim is to sift tangible history from magical reality ...and he proves the sceptics wrong: India is the Jewel in the Prince of Travellers' turban. * The Nehru Centre * Part travel book, part biography, part detective story, this is a gripping read and a fitting testament to the Prince of Travellers. * Wanderlust * Funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic * Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review * Tim 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 and * As 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 Allen * Esoteric, 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 Hansen * Mackintosh-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 Telegraph * Were 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 Spectator * 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 Snows *