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The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire
A sumptuous biographical saga, both intimate and epic, about the waning of the British Empire in India
John Auden was a pioneering geologist of the Himalaya. 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 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.
Dense with romance and intrigue, and of startling relevance for the great power games of our own day, Deborah Baker’s The Last Englishmen is an engrossing story that traces the end of empire and the stirring of a new world order.
John Auden was a pioneering geologist of the Himalaya. 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 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.
Dense with romance and intrigue, and of startling relevance for the great power games of our own day, Deborah Baker’s The Last Englishmen is an engrossing story that traces the end of empire and the stirring of a new world order.
- GenresHistoryIndiaNonfiction
385 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 2, 2018
50 people are currently reading
505 people want to read
About the author
Deborah Baker
32 books35 followersDeborah Baker was born in Charlottesville and grew up in Virginia, Puerto Rico and New England. She attended the University of Virginia and Cambridge University. Her first biography, written in college, was Making a Farm: The Life of Robert Bly, published by Beacon Press in 1982.
After working a number of years as a book editor and publisher, in 1990 she moved to Calcutta where she wrote In Extremis; The Life of Laura Riding. Published by Grove Press and Hamish Hamilton in the UK, it was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1994. Her third book, A Blue Hand: The Beats in India was published by Penguin Press USA and Penguin India in 2008.
In 2008–2009 she was a Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis C. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at The New York Public Library. There she researched and wrote The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, a narrative account of the life of an American convert to Islam, drawn on letters on deposit in the library’s manuscript division. The Convert, published by Graywolf and Penguin India, was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award in Non-Fiction.
In August 2018, she published her fifth work of non-fiction, The Last Englishmen: Love, War and the End of Empire.
She has two children and is married to the writer Amitav Ghosh. They divide their time between Brooklyn and Goa.
After working a number of years as a book editor and publisher, in 1990 she moved to Calcutta where she wrote In Extremis; The Life of Laura Riding. Published by Grove Press and Hamish Hamilton in the UK, it was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 1994. Her third book, A Blue Hand: The Beats in India was published by Penguin Press USA and Penguin India in 2008.
In 2008–2009 she was a Fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis C. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at The New York Public Library. There she researched and wrote The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, a narrative account of the life of an American convert to Islam, drawn on letters on deposit in the library’s manuscript division. The Convert, published by Graywolf and Penguin India, was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award in Non-Fiction.
In August 2018, she published her fifth work of non-fiction, The Last Englishmen: Love, War and the End of Empire.
She has two children and is married to the writer Amitav Ghosh. They divide their time between Brooklyn and Goa.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
September 10, 2018
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 important in the last 50 years of Empire.
During British rule of India, the colony was often a dumping ground of sorts for Brits of both genders. Second and third sons often went to India to find opportunities and fortunes not available if they had stayed home. Young women arrived on the "fishing fleets" to find husbands among the Englishmen already there. And the Indians themselves were often supervised by British overseers; put in by the British government to make sure things were done according to British standards. In the almost 100 years of official Raj rule - 1858-1947 - Englishmen were ubiquitous in their presence in all aspects of Indian life. And India provided a proving place for those men interested in conquering the world's highest peak.
Baker's book features John Auden and Michael Spender - who had more famous younger brothers - and who worked on the measuring and then the attempts to climb Mt Everest. There were several attempts in the 1920's and 1930's, which ended in failure, often with a loss of life. Baker includes artists, politicians, teachers, sportsmen, and philosophers in her look at the British Indian society of the time. All had influence on what India and Pakistan would become after Independence.
I am giving the book 4 stars instead of 5 because I think Baker could have been a bit more orderly in her writing. She jumps around too much - of course, she is telling the stories of a lot of people in a fairly large geographical and time range. But she's a good writer and has picked the most interesting people to include in her book. "The Last Englishmen" is not really for the casual reader. It's for the armchair historian who already knows a bit about Raj India.
During British rule of India, the colony was often a dumping ground of sorts for Brits of both genders. Second and third sons often went to India to find opportunities and fortunes not available if they had stayed home. Young women arrived on the "fishing fleets" to find husbands among the Englishmen already there. And the Indians themselves were often supervised by British overseers; put in by the British government to make sure things were done according to British standards. In the almost 100 years of official Raj rule - 1858-1947 - Englishmen were ubiquitous in their presence in all aspects of Indian life. And India provided a proving place for those men interested in conquering the world's highest peak.
Baker's book features John Auden and Michael Spender - who had more famous younger brothers - and who worked on the measuring and then the attempts to climb Mt Everest. There were several attempts in the 1920's and 1930's, which ended in failure, often with a loss of life. Baker includes artists, politicians, teachers, sportsmen, and philosophers in her look at the British Indian society of the time. All had influence on what India and Pakistan would become after Independence.
I am giving the book 4 stars instead of 5 because I think Baker could have been a bit more orderly in her writing. She jumps around too much - of course, she is telling the stories of a lot of people in a fairly large geographical and time range. But she's a good writer and has picked the most interesting people to include in her book. "The Last Englishmen" is not really for the casual reader. It's for the armchair historian who already knows a bit about Raj India.
September 11, 2018
“The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire” by Guggenheim Fellow and Whiting Award Winner Deborah Baker was published in 2018. Her book traces the lives of English adventurers and India patriots from the WWI through the end of WW2. The impact of war, thirst for excellence, regional religious prejudice, and worldly unbridled evil profoundly molded the lives of these individuals. Baker, through these main characters, helps the reader experience firsthand the key forces and events that led to the end of the British empire, India’s independence, and Pakistan’s nationhood. This book is fascinating to read. (L)
October 10, 2018
I am so glad I did not buy a copy of this book. It was impossible for me to follow; and generally when I did try to follow a thread, the substance wasn't worth the effort. Worst book I've read this year.
December 18, 2019
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 in the manner of a novel.
Through the lives of a few British officers and Western educated Indian intellectuals, Deborah Baker narrates the social and political upheaval taking place in Europe and British India preceding and during the Second World War and how their lives crisscrossed leading to joy, love, suffering and agony. The similarity in the social struggle of the working class against the ruling elite is poignantly etched out. For example, the coal miners' strike in England in 1926 and the class struggles within the Indian society as a subset of the broader struggle for self-rule are indications of that.
The author portrays a vivid picture of how the policies of the British Raj over the decades brought about a gradual transformation in the thinking of the English educated Indian elite.The initial positive sentiment generated as a result of marriage of Western education with Indian thought among the early beneficiaries was seeing a gradual shift among the subsequent generation. For example, after being a silent witness to the mass deaths during the Bengal famine in 1943 (result of British inaction), Sudindranath Dutta started to question his father, Hirendranath Dutta's belief that marriage of West and East has brought prosperity to Bengal, something he also had alluded to for a long time. Tagore's letter to Foss Wescott before his death is another reflection of it.
It was also a time of fierce rivalry among the Imperialist nations. The power play of Imperial politics played out in the terrain of mountaineering as well, the intense competition among the British, Germans and Americans to be the first one to summit the Mt. Everest is a testimony to that. The highest mountain in the world, named after an Englishman, had proved out of reach of the British despite repeated expeditions throughout the 1930s.
Although the author's writing is essentially descriptive, barring a few paragraphs describing the Himalayan expeditions, it never gets monotonous for she alternates between the private lives of her characters and the political happenings in Europe and British India. Her use of sarcasm is mild and mature handling of the deaths and destruction in Europe during the War and the communal riots in Calcutta deserve appreciation. Her characters appear aptly woven into the narrative of the World War and the Indian Independence movement across the two continents.
The British may have left India decades ago and English names replaced on account of Indianisation in the ensuing decades but a few remnants will forever remind us of their contributions. For example, one of the most dangerous passes in Rudagaira Valley in Garhwal in known as Auden's Col, named after John Bicknell Auden, the first one to climb the dangerous pass in 1939. John Auden, Director of Geological Survey of India was perhaps the last English officer to leave India in May 1953.
The Last Englishmen provides a poignant narrative about India and Britain of the 1930s and 40s especially for current generations far removed from those times.
Through the lives of a few British officers and Western educated Indian intellectuals, Deborah Baker narrates the social and political upheaval taking place in Europe and British India preceding and during the Second World War and how their lives crisscrossed leading to joy, love, suffering and agony. The similarity in the social struggle of the working class against the ruling elite is poignantly etched out. For example, the coal miners' strike in England in 1926 and the class struggles within the Indian society as a subset of the broader struggle for self-rule are indications of that.
The author portrays a vivid picture of how the policies of the British Raj over the decades brought about a gradual transformation in the thinking of the English educated Indian elite.The initial positive sentiment generated as a result of marriage of Western education with Indian thought among the early beneficiaries was seeing a gradual shift among the subsequent generation. For example, after being a silent witness to the mass deaths during the Bengal famine in 1943 (result of British inaction), Sudindranath Dutta started to question his father, Hirendranath Dutta's belief that marriage of West and East has brought prosperity to Bengal, something he also had alluded to for a long time. Tagore's letter to Foss Wescott before his death is another reflection of it.
It was also a time of fierce rivalry among the Imperialist nations. The power play of Imperial politics played out in the terrain of mountaineering as well, the intense competition among the British, Germans and Americans to be the first one to summit the Mt. Everest is a testimony to that. The highest mountain in the world, named after an Englishman, had proved out of reach of the British despite repeated expeditions throughout the 1930s.
Although the author's writing is essentially descriptive, barring a few paragraphs describing the Himalayan expeditions, it never gets monotonous for she alternates between the private lives of her characters and the political happenings in Europe and British India. Her use of sarcasm is mild and mature handling of the deaths and destruction in Europe during the War and the communal riots in Calcutta deserve appreciation. Her characters appear aptly woven into the narrative of the World War and the Indian Independence movement across the two continents.
The British may have left India decades ago and English names replaced on account of Indianisation in the ensuing decades but a few remnants will forever remind us of their contributions. For example, one of the most dangerous passes in Rudagaira Valley in Garhwal in known as Auden's Col, named after John Bicknell Auden, the first one to climb the dangerous pass in 1939. John Auden, Director of Geological Survey of India was perhaps the last English officer to leave India in May 1953.
The Last Englishmen provides a poignant narrative about India and Britain of the 1930s and 40s especially for current generations far removed from those times.
September 8, 2018
I wanted to love this book. The people, the history of a dramatic era in world politics, the complexities of India and its influence of the lives of Englishman working there... but I continually felt I was on the outside of an insider’s story. The narrative felt fragmented and shallow. People would be mentioned as if I should know who they were, and not actually introduced for pages. Major events in both world history and people’s lives would be given equal, casual mention, with not enough backstory, or mentioned offhandedly in retrospect. One poor recurring relative was only referred to as “Granny” throughout the book. A sense of real focus and cohesion was lacking, and so, sadly, I never was engrossed by this book as I’d hoped to be. I was never able to figure out what was supposed to be important to me as a reader or how I was to feel about the major players presented.
September 6, 2019
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 ARC of this nonfiction book at BEA 2018 and suggested I give it a try. Baker is an accomplished historical researcher with an incredible aptitude for telling individual tales that reflect worldwide events. Here, she narrates the story of India during the world wars and the end of the British Raj, through the eyes of poets, explorers, and secret political spies. Highly suggest, for fans of well-written and intricate historical nonfiction narratives of colonialism.
November 8, 2018
The premise of the book is really interesting, but sadly the author was unable to bring the idea to fruition. Trying to look at so many different people and how their histories intersected in India before partition ends up reading like a Russian novel. There are just too many characters to follow making the book a difficult read. I should have known from the cast of people listed at the front of the book that it would make for a plodding read.
did-not-finish
September 10, 2018I'm not going to rate this (although I normally do so with my DNF books) because I don't really feel like I read enough to be fair. However, I love books about Everest which is why I picked up this one to read. And after three chapters I was bored beyond belief and there was no real sign that anyone was ever going to get to Everest. So I called it and moved onto something else.
December 22, 2018
Chronicles the last days of the British Raj in India and in that backdrop, the life of WH Auden, and John Auden, the director of Geological Survey of India and who mapped the tract of the Himalayas and an inveterate adventurer. In the process, Deborah describes the life of Sudhindranath Datta, the Bengali litterateur extraordinaire and the salon he ran in Calcutta: Parichayer Adda.
It’s a must read for anyone interested in the history of pre/peri-partition India, and the history of Himalayan and Karakoram expeditions.
It’s a must read for anyone interested in the history of pre/peri-partition India, and the history of Himalayan and Karakoram expeditions.
December 3, 2018
The Last Englishman is a difficult read and not very absorbing as a work of fiction. Parts of it offer interesting insights about the English in India at the height of the Raj, and about mapping the Himalayas. The jumps in the storytelling, however, are sometimes confusing and require a lot of concentration. It might work better as non-fiction (but there are portions that are obviously fictitious. Clearly confusing!)
February 6, 2019
I read two outstanding reviews of this book, but I discovered that it just doesn’t suit my tastes. The author tries to replicate the flow of real events in the lives of the principal figures in this group biography. That’s admirable. History isn’t lived as a coherent narrative. But when history isn’t written that way, the results can be practically unintelligible. I’m all for biographies that depict their subjects’ lives and times. Here we get the lives and... no times.
August 2, 2021
Unfortunately I was out of step with this book and didn't enjoy it. I found it plodding and rambling. The characters were no Bloomsbury set and seemed to merge into one mass. One brighter section described Michael Spender's (Stephen Spender's brother) time in Photographic Interpretation during WW2 but that was quite short. I've read better books on the end of British rule in India and I found the use of "verbatim" dialogue quite wearing.
March 7, 2023
英国人对印度民族主义者的权力要求听而不闻，仍然沉浸在维多利亚时代的辉煌之中，不愿意给他们以白人自治领一样的地位，这决定了他们最终双手空空离开印度次大陆。孟加拉分治运动历史有讲过，不过没想到导致英治印度首府从加尔各答变成德里，这一点没有提及，印度的重心从南印转向北印，孟加拉因此衰落。英国在孟加拉大饥荒中漠视苦难，不答应进口粮食，坐视350w甚至更多人饿死，这体现了大英殖民主义者的傲慢，他们甚至想赖掉二战中欠印度的8亿债务，这样只能把印度推向民族独立之路，其实这种时候是最好收买印度民心的机会，但是他们放弃了，结果等二战后印度兵复员后得知灾情时，他们就变成了最不可靠的因素。英国离开印度次大陆，让阿达里的英国人和印度人之间的纽带也不复存在，约翰与谢达的跨国婚姻也一样走到了尽头。
May 15, 2019
This book had some moments of interest but generally it bogged down in the mundane details of the main figures day to day lives without giving a greater context of the issues of the day. It did not seem to know where it was going and I ended up skimming a lot of it.
November 21, 2019
Four stars for thoroughness. Either I did not bring enough to this book or the author expected me to guess at many vague references. I learned a lot and am aghast at man’s inhumanity, especially the British. More reading required.
July 26, 2022
I wanted to like this more than I actually ended up liking it. To be fair, it picked up near the end, as it talked about Indian independence. I got mixed up in all the intertwining threads of people's lives, though, and struggled to figure out how people were related to one another.
September 14, 2025
I'd really love to read the good version of the book. One that has more context and connective tissue, rather than this rambling episodic mess. I was particularly frustrated by how many Indian phrases were untranslated/unexplained, and the lack of maps.
September 28, 2025
It's not easy to follow all of the characters but it's a very interesting and worthwhile historical book.
It helps at understanding what the British Empire was vis-a-vis it's relationship with India and how that might still impact class attitudes to this day.
It helps at understanding what the British Empire was vis-a-vis it's relationship with India and how that might still impact class attitudes to this day.
January 29, 2019
Too many characters with too many anecdotal stories for each and hard to remember Indian names.
February 14, 2020
Meandering...aimless meandering...
September 2, 2021
Jumbled, jumps around, not enough explanation of the people the author is talking about. There is some good information about India’s history and the Raj but it gets lost in the jumbled writing.
September 22, 2025
Detailed
Found the information extensive and deeply researched. The style difficult to follow. Did learn new aspects of the politics and strategy of Indian Independence.
Found the information extensive and deeply researched. The style difficult to follow. Did learn new aspects of the politics and strategy of Indian Independence.
December 25, 2022
The idea of a book that would bring together 3 of the Macspaunday group, their older brothers, the 30s Himalayan explorers and put them into a Bengali context sounded intriguing, so I bought and read it. Unfortunately, this is a deeply flawed book marred principally by the author's cultural blindness and lack of historical rigour. To state a key objection, the words English and British are used as if they are interchangeable, sometimes within the same paragraph - something that would probably have irritated Louis MacNeice and Lord Linlithgow immeasurably. On one occasion, Baker even alludes to Rudolf Hess's "visit to England" - presumably intending to refer to his flight to Scotland. The two major figures - John Auden and Michael Spender - remain indistinctly characterised - I found it difficult to remember which one of these tactless, obsessive characters was the surveyor and which the geologist; who was married to whom at what time, etc. She seems to have little empathy for the people she writes about. She makes quite a lot of what she depicts as a quest to bolster the self-image of the British Empire by being the first nation to climb Mount Everest. To be fair, she does adduce some quotations from mountaineering circles that can be read as supporting that viewpoint but it is unfortunate for her thesis that the explorers to whom she pays most attention, Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman, were almost certainly not attached to any such quest. Her depiction of both these men is a good indication of her limitations as a writer - the psychology is blurred and tends not to accord with other information available to me. In particular, she uses selective quotations from his writings to portray Shipton in a way that bears no resemblance to any other account I have read. In her acknowledgments, Baker claims to have always been intrigued about W.H. Auden's reasons for staying in the USA after the declaration of war on Germany. It would be hard to find any enlightenment in this book.
As for historical rigour, it is odd that she refers to Louis MacNeice in India in 1947 writing about how the locals used English phrases that "he hadn't heard since Edward was king." He would have been 3 when Edward VII died in 1910 and he is not likely to have been thinking about that brief period 10 years earlier when Edward VIII was on the throne.
She clearly subscribes to the view that the British sucked wealth out of India - it is a mini-obsession in the book. A few seconds thought makes you wonder at this. For one thing, even now, 80 years or so since India became independent, the British economy in GDP is larger than that of India, even after the latter has enjoyed 30 years of spectacular and rapid growth. It is also ably rebutted by Hira Jungkow in this article https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021... .
Obviously, she lets disdain stream out of her when describing the Bengal Famine but it is a very unnuanced account. She does not seem particularly aware that there was a major world war in progress at the time - so where would more food be available and how would it be delivered - surely key factors if you are going to try to pin all the blame on Linlithgow. Interestingly, she does not mention that Roosevelt refused to divert shipping from the war effort to give assistance. Nor does Baker seem aware of the U-boat campaign. The first mention of that comes when MacNeice interviews an Indian industrialist in 1947 - "during the war U-boat attacks on shipping had effectively halted imports from England (sic)." Might not this clockafe have worked in both directions? At the end of her admittedly distressing account of the famine, she adds this terse paragraph: "Meanwhile, the British public was informed that in anticipation of Europe's liberation, their chocolate rations would be cut." Perhaps this is disingenuous? Perhaps she really is aware of the privations and rationing of rather more than chocolate that was happening in the UK during the war - unlike in the Raj - but it grates. Her farewell dig at Churchill, however, is just juvenile and stupid.
The strangest thing about this book is the amount of attention played to the Calcutta Parichay Adda - a talking shop of Westernised Bengali intellectuals. The people involved are better characterised and individualised than the British figures but the lack of wider cultural context is annoying. Were such circles limited to Bengal or did they take place all over the sub-continent? What was their real importance? They come across as a preening, self-important, effete bunch - rather like the Apostles. They do not seem to have had their finger very firmly on the pulse of Indian politics and they really had very little idea of what Muslims were thinking. Ironically, Baker shows that the Bengalis were just as blind as the British she disdains so much.
Recently, a historian created this thread on Twitter that obliterates Baker : https://twitter.com/AndreasKoureas_/s...
As for historical rigour, it is odd that she refers to Louis MacNeice in India in 1947 writing about how the locals used English phrases that "he hadn't heard since Edward was king." He would have been 3 when Edward VII died in 1910 and he is not likely to have been thinking about that brief period 10 years earlier when Edward VIII was on the throne.
She clearly subscribes to the view that the British sucked wealth out of India - it is a mini-obsession in the book. A few seconds thought makes you wonder at this. For one thing, even now, 80 years or so since India became independent, the British economy in GDP is larger than that of India, even after the latter has enjoyed 30 years of spectacular and rapid growth. It is also ably rebutted by Hira Jungkow in this article https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021... .
Obviously, she lets disdain stream out of her when describing the Bengal Famine but it is a very unnuanced account. She does not seem particularly aware that there was a major world war in progress at the time - so where would more food be available and how would it be delivered - surely key factors if you are going to try to pin all the blame on Linlithgow. Interestingly, she does not mention that Roosevelt refused to divert shipping from the war effort to give assistance. Nor does Baker seem aware of the U-boat campaign. The first mention of that comes when MacNeice interviews an Indian industrialist in 1947 - "during the war U-boat attacks on shipping had effectively halted imports from England (sic)." Might not this clockafe have worked in both directions? At the end of her admittedly distressing account of the famine, she adds this terse paragraph: "Meanwhile, the British public was informed that in anticipation of Europe's liberation, their chocolate rations would be cut." Perhaps this is disingenuous? Perhaps she really is aware of the privations and rationing of rather more than chocolate that was happening in the UK during the war - unlike in the Raj - but it grates. Her farewell dig at Churchill, however, is just juvenile and stupid.
The strangest thing about this book is the amount of attention played to the Calcutta Parichay Adda - a talking shop of Westernised Bengali intellectuals. The people involved are better characterised and individualised than the British figures but the lack of wider cultural context is annoying. Were such circles limited to Bengal or did they take place all over the sub-continent? What was their real importance? They come across as a preening, self-important, effete bunch - rather like the Apostles. They do not seem to have had their finger very firmly on the pulse of Indian politics and they really had very little idea of what Muslims were thinking. Ironically, Baker shows that the Bengalis were just as blind as the British she disdains so much.
Recently, a historian created this thread on Twitter that obliterates Baker : https://twitter.com/AndreasKoureas_/s...
March 31, 2025
Great book, worth the effort
I liked the premise of this book, so started listening. I knew I was missing some of the connections between characters, but carried on… until I got 1/2 way through and it was pre-WWII (an area of interest) and realized I had missed a lot. So I chose to start again from the beginning and made sure I wasn’t multitasking while listening. I also read some reviews, which helped me with context. One review said the book was written for someone who already had a good understanding of India history (which I don’t have, hence why I was missing stuff, a good ah ha). I wasn’t too worried about the huge list of characters, some of who only appear once or twice, after I took time to make notes on the main ones (John [brother Wystan], Michael [brother Stephen], Nancy), and could refer back to. I’ve not put this amount of effort into an audiobook before, but it was worth it.
From Michael Spender’s life, I enjoyed learning about how surveyors work (the “triangles”), and why this was so important for the Everest climbs. I was also fascinated by his groundbreaking work in WWII, enlarging and interpreting arial photography, to identify troop movements and such. I’m inspired to learn more about India’s history, and may re-listen one day.
I liked the premise of this book, so started listening. I knew I was missing some of the connections between characters, but carried on… until I got 1/2 way through and it was pre-WWII (an area of interest) and realized I had missed a lot. So I chose to start again from the beginning and made sure I wasn’t multitasking while listening. I also read some reviews, which helped me with context. One review said the book was written for someone who already had a good understanding of India history (which I don’t have, hence why I was missing stuff, a good ah ha). I wasn’t too worried about the huge list of characters, some of who only appear once or twice, after I took time to make notes on the main ones (John [brother Wystan], Michael [brother Stephen], Nancy), and could refer back to. I’ve not put this amount of effort into an audiobook before, but it was worth it.
From Michael Spender’s life, I enjoyed learning about how surveyors work (the “triangles”), and why this was so important for the Everest climbs. I was also fascinated by his groundbreaking work in WWII, enlarging and interpreting arial photography, to identify troop movements and such. I’m inspired to learn more about India’s history, and may re-listen one day.
November 13, 2018
A Micro History of the Tragedy of the Partition of India
In a kaleidoscope of numerous, often hard-to-follow personal episodes we are told the micro-level of a few English and Bengali characters— their artistic pursuits, their partly pathetic intellectual discussions, their marital and extramarital affairs with hetero- and homosexual partners, the sympathies for Stalin’s Communism. Some characters explore the Himalayas, go to war against Nazi Germany, agitate for Indian independence — episodes that shed some light on the macro history of the tortured 1930s and 1940s. Though meticulously footnoted and researched, the book struck me as a rather unsatisfactory read, given the endless accounts of often pointless detail.
In a kaleidoscope of numerous, often hard-to-follow personal episodes we are told the micro-level of a few English and Bengali characters— their artistic pursuits, their partly pathetic intellectual discussions, their marital and extramarital affairs with hetero- and homosexual partners, the sympathies for Stalin’s Communism. Some characters explore the Himalayas, go to war against Nazi Germany, agitate for Indian independence — episodes that shed some light on the macro history of the tortured 1930s and 1940s. Though meticulously footnoted and researched, the book struck me as a rather unsatisfactory read, given the endless accounts of often pointless detail.
August 8, 2020
I gave this book my best shot. I really did. After progressing through at least one third of the book, I finally came to my conclusion that I did not care one bit about the lives of the historical figures featured. I never finished it.
May 8, 2019
Muddled at best
Want to read
August 27, 20188/26/18 Wall Street Journal had a good Saturday Review "Totally original"
‘The Last Englishmen’ Review: India, Everest and Empire https://www.wsj.comb/the-last-english...
‘The Last Englishmen’ Review: India, Everest and Empire https://www.wsj.comb/the-last-english...
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