Rating: 
Summary: "...From the pages of Greenmantle."-Hopkirk
Review: "Captain Edward Noel reminds one uncannily of John Buchan's brilliant but elusive hero Sandy Arbuthnot. Indeed, Noel might easily have stepped from the pages of Greenmantle." Buchan, like Hopkirk, worked for the Times London during WWI. Peter Hopkirk did some sleuthing of his own more than half a century later, unearthing facts hitherto unknown about Captain Noel's adventures in the British army intelligence services and of the probable circumstances surrounding the deaths of 26 Bolshevik Commissars near railway tracks somewhere between Krasnovodsk and Ashkhabad in the`southern Russian steppes just north of Iran and Afghanistan. Their deaths were blamed on the British, on Captain Noel in particular, by the Bolsheviks intent on finding any evidence to nail on their British imperialist foes. The Russians were allies to the British at the beginning of the war, but the Russian revolution changed all that. All that is in the last half of the book, the first mainly describing the Kaiser's machinations and his propaganda war in the Ottoman empire of the Mideast, mainly in eastern Turkey and the Caucusus. Baku, a city frequented by Lenin and Stalin before the war, is a city on the Caspian Sea where it, according to Hopkirk, "had enough oil to heat and illuminate the entire world. So sodden with it was the stuff that one had only to toss a match into the Caspian off Baku for the`sea to catch fire and burn for several minutes." At Baku too another horrific massacre of Armenians happened at the close of the war, that was so brutal that even the arriving Turks were shocked, there being many factions in this volatile region. An incredibly fascinating story all around, not to mention the plotting to get Indians involved in the global conflict, with arms, revolvers and rifles, shipped from California by immigrants to revolutionaries within India.
This one is the second book of a trilogy by Hopkirk about British affairs in this region of the globe. WWI history like I never learned. What would the world be like today if King George V's letter had not reached the Emir of Afghanistan? What would have transpired had not the British intelligence officers in India, the Caucasus and the Ottoman Empire? I always read books out of order; I must read the other two books of Hopkirk's Great Game trilogy! John Buchan/Lord Tweedsmuir wrote in his last book Pilgrim's Way that "I believed profoundly in the possibilities of the Empire as a guardian of world peace".
Rating: 
Summary: Engrossing and enthralling
Review: "Like Hidden Fire" is another of Hopkirk's wonderful books about central Asia. He begins in the 19th century with some political backstory, but this is essentially a book about a subplot of the First World War. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany wanted to find a way to destabilize the British holdings in south and central Asia, and had lost no opportunity over the previous twenty years to win the friendship of Islamic nations, particularly Turkey,the core of the tattered Ottoman Empire. When war broke out, the Germans set plans in motion to incite revolts in India and Afghanistan, and to take over control of Persia, nominally neutral but in fact a battleground for the great powers.Over the four years of the war, the consequences of this German plan played out in individual dramas of espionage, diplomacy and military action. Hopkirk covers both sides of the story, and does a better job than in his "The Great Game" of keeping a fairly even-handed tone. Some of the German exploits were astonishing -- particularly those of Captain Niedermayer, who by a horrifying series of forced marches penetrated the Persia-Afghanistan border with a diplomatic mission to the Emir of Afghanistan. The British heroes are covered too: Ranald McDonell, Edward Noel, and most interestingly, Reginald Teague-Jones, who disappeared at the end of the war in mysterious circumstances. Hopkirk did a good deal of work and ultimately did manage to trace Teague-Jones. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what he found, but there are clearly still mysteries waiting to be revealed when the UK goverment opens up the 100 year old files in a few more years time. Political events of the time had an impact on the story too, most notably the Bolshevik revolution, which changed the course of Russian involvement and hence the balance of power in south Asia. One event is covered in detail -- the massacre of the commissars in Baku in 1919. Once an icon of Soviet political mythology, the vast memorial built there was torn down in 1990 after the collapse of the USSR. If you are new to Hopkirk, I'd recommend reading "The Great Game" first, because as well as being immensely entertaining it will give you a broad and thorough grounding in the political background to imperial politics in Asia. But after that, this is a great follow-up.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing and enthralling
Review: "Like Hidden Fire" is another of Hopkirk's wonderful books about central Asia. He begins in the 19th century with some political backstory, but this is essentially a book about a subplot of the First World War. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany wanted to find a way to destabilize the British holdings in south and central Asia, and had lost no opportunity over the previous twenty years to win the friendship of Islamic nations, particularly Turkey,the core of the tattered Ottoman Empire. When war broke out, the Germans set plans in motion to incite revolts in India and Afghanistan, and to take over control of Persia, nominally neutral but in fact a battleground for the great powers. Over the four years of the war, the consequences of this German plan played out in individual dramas of espionage, diplomacy and military action. Hopkirk covers both sides of the story, and does a better job than in his "The Great Game" of keeping a fairly even-handed tone. Some of the German exploits were astonishing -- particularly those of Captain Niedermayer, who by a horrifying series of forced marches penetrated the Persia-Afghanistan border with a diplomatic mission to the Emir of Afghanistan. The British heroes are covered too: Ranald McDonell, Edward Noel, and most interestingly, Reginald Teague-Jones, who disappeared at the end of the war in mysterious circumstances. Hopkirk did a good deal of work and ultimately did manage to trace Teague-Jones. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what he found, but there are clearly still mysteries waiting to be revealed when the UK goverment opens up the 100 year old files in a few more years time. Political events of the time had an impact on the story too, most notably the Bolshevik revolution, which changed the course of Russian involvement and hence the balance of power in south Asia. One event is covered in detail -- the massacre of the commissars in Baku in 1919. Once an icon of Soviet political mythology, the vast memorial built there was torn down in 1990 after the collapse of the USSR. If you are new to Hopkirk, I'd recommend reading "The Great Game" first, because as well as being immensely entertaining it will give you a broad and thorough grounding in the political background to imperial politics in Asia. But after that, this is a great follow-up.
Rating:
Summary: Not a Great Game, but...
Review: ...quite a good read. Having enjoyed Hopkirk's GREAT GAME (and having been a fan of John Buchan since childhood) I turned to this with anticipation. The book doesn't really disappoint, and I have used bits and pieces in a variety of lectures, but at the same time I don't think it lives up to its predecessor. There were many moments where I was enthralled and captivated -Hopkirk does a great job linking the different aspects of Imperial Germany's global strategy, from the Himalaya to Mexico, but then there were fallow sections where I wish he would simply get on with the story. Suffice it to say that I have dipped back into it on occasion and in hindsight think that dipping in might be better than reading it cover to cover.
Rating:
Summary: Great Game Intrigue in the Middle East during WWI
Review: For those of you who are familiar with Hopkirk's other books, this book is yet another well written narrative on an obscure subject.
Hopkirk does a wonderful job of bringing to life key personnel who were involved in Great Game intrigue in the Middle East during WWI. Figures such as Von Hentig, Niedermeyer, Wassmuss, Teague-Jones, Noel, and MacDonnel to name a few, are brought to life and given their rightful spot in the plot-counterplot dramas that unfolded behind the scenes in Mesopotomia, Persia, Afghanistan and Russian/Soviet Central Asia.
I would have liked to see a bit more development on Wassmuss vis-a-vis Mesopotamia, and I think any reader of this would love to see in the future the true life story of Reginald Teague-Jones.
However, the scope of this book is so large, that any further elaboration on any of these subjects would have made the book a multi-volume set.
A great read for anyone who is interested in any of the other theaters of WWI. Excellent bibliography (as usual for Hopkirk)...highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A caveat for Hopkirk fans
Review: Hopkirk does a wonderful job in this work of illuminating some of the less well known chapters of the first world war. As usual, his writing is very good and he does a pretty good job of holding the reader's interest. However, it is on this last point that this work is a half step below Hopkirk's other works on Central Asia. The nature of this book is such that the history of a world war must be told to put into context the events that Hopkirk describes. As a result, Hopkirk is not able to do what works so very well for him in his other writings. In the others, he is able to focus on one or two charecters at a time and tell their story in a very engaging way. Here, he must combine characters and events and a bit of the good story telling power of Hopkirk's other works are lost. But, by all means, do pick up the book and read it.
Rating:
Summary: A caveat for Hopkirk fans
Review: Hopkirk does a wonderful job in this work of illuminating some of the less well known chapters of the first world war. As usual, his writing is very good and he does a pretty good job of holding the reader's interest. However, it is on this last point that this work is a half step below Hopkirk's other works on Central Asia. The nature of this book is such that the history of a world war must be told to put into context the events that Hopkirk describes. As a result, Hopkirk is not able to do what works so very well for him in his other writings. In the others, he is able to focus on one or two charecters at a time and tell their story in a very engaging way. Here, he must combine characters and events and a bit of the good story telling power of Hopkirk's other works are lost. But, by all means, do pick up the book and read it.
Rating:
Summary: BLOODY GOOD -- NOT HIS BEST -- BUT BLOODY GOOD
Review: If you are a Hopkirk addict like me, you will breeze through another one of his exciting narratives of Central Asian History and love every minute of it. Fire up the kettle, throw on your fez and curl up in your favourite reading chair as Hopkirk takes you on a true-life tale of derring do against German and Communist Agents in central Asia in World War I. Russia is the ally and the German is the new encroacher on British Empire and the Imperial Indian Raj. Hopkirk of course picks his cast with a loving hand and we have the usual sort of British imperial heroes, speaking the local language, gaining favour from locals with their fair and firm hand, and doling out the intrigue in dollops. But... Hopkirk give us detial of the German Spies in this area as well. Some like Niedermeyer, the German Lawrence and his associate Hentig on their overland journey to Kabul to try to convince the Emir to throw in his lot with the Turkish and Germans and attack British India. The details of his adventures in the Persian deserts and his sojourn in Kabul make great, fast reading. The heebie-jeebies that his action caused the British and their reaction to it are also adventure writ large. Hopkirk describes the German/ Turkish attempt to bring down the British Empire with a holy war orchestrated by themselves. It also shows what brittle fibre holy war is made from. In the end the respective ethnic groups in the muslim world acted in their own self interests -- the Persians had no love for a Turkish Empire, the Emir of Afghanistan kept checking which way the wind blew before deciding to remain loyal to Britain. And the Arabs decided that an Englishman (TE Lawrence) held the Key to independence, not their fellow muslims in Constantinople. Once the mess of the Arab Revolt gutted Turkish Power the British find themselves out of the frying pan and into the fire and intervene in the Caucasus' to try to keep Russia in the war. The British effort here and the emmiment Victorian personalities are well described and the perfidious Red Reaction and myth-making also exploded by Hopkirk. In final analysis Hopkirk writes books alive with adventure. I think that Hopkirk had a major problem in delimiting the book. That is a hard thing to do in a work of this kind. Some things such as the British under seige at Al Kut and its eventual fall are directly related to the tales of our heroes on the ground the political outcome later described. Some other details might have made a shorter book (ie, the Zimmerman Telegram recounting) but they are still interesting and indirectly related to the tale Hopkirk is telling. If you have the ability to honestly judge it then there are a few flaws that should be noted, but they do not at all detract from the flow of the read or the historical smorgasbord laid out before you. In final analysis this book encorporates the widest canvas that Hopkirk has used to date, the World War. That necessitates more detail on distant, but related elements. These may not be as well organised as they could be, but, because Hopkirk writes them, are always highly interesting. A good tea-time book. Something that one looks forward to....
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but it doesn't hold together very well
Review: Peter Hopkirk knows how to tell an interesting tale, and the history of imperialism is full of them. As a result, this book contains many intriguing stories of derring-do. However, unlike "The Great Game" which had a solid overriding theme, this book feels more haphazard because the efforts of the Germans to set the East afire were rather haphazard. This was perhaps a reflection of wishful thinking on their part combined with a belief that solid Prussian organizational ethic could make anything happen. Certainly, the attempt to foment a "Holy War" in the Middle East was worth the limited effort the German's put into it. And that limited effort generates some interesting stories. But, the book could have ended with the fall of Baghdad as that effectively eliminated the Germans from the equation. Instead, Hopkirk grafts on the story of the events around Baku which actually provided the best opportunity to foment Muslim unrest, but which occured after the Germans had left the area. This is an entertaining story as well, but seems only vaguely connected to the idea of the book. In sum, an entertaining if rambling history of a little-known corner of the Great War.
Rating:
Summary: Why they call it World War
Review: So many aspects of our present world and the dilemmas that plague us now grew out of the backrooms, the backwoods and the backwaters of the world. Even today, Central Asia is a mystery to most people in the US. "Like Hidden Fire" is a great place to start to learn how complex the world is and why the peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia might have just a little mistrust of the West and its motives.
The story is the down and dirty of the German efforts to unseat the British Empire leading up to and during the First World War. It includes efforts to create a Holy War against the British and champion the Kaiser as a "Defender of the Faith" (the Faith in question being Islam, of course).
The trail takes us from intrigue to counter intrigue through Turkey, Iran and into Central Asia where then, as today, the Westerners are more pawns in the local struggles than vice versa.
This is totally relevent to today both in understanding the local issues as well as how shallow the West is in dealing with the people and culture of the Middle East and Central Asia.
The work is as vast and complex as the region and the people it covers. Set some time aside to read it and don't be surprised if you find yourself exploring the people, places and other works that are cited in the book.
-Mike
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