The Great Game

"This takes me away from London and cholera to Afghanistan, the North West Frontier and Central Asia. Hopkirk’s Great Game is a history of the game of exploration and espionage played out by representatives of Britain and Russia in the 19th century. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . At the time, Britain controlled India, and Russia was expanding beyond the Urals, eastwards into Siberia and southeastwards into Central Asia. In Delhi and London there were fears that the Russians would map the passes through Afghanistan and plan an invasion of British India. And the Russians would have had similar concerns that the British would enter Central Asia. It was a ‘game’, but a potentially deadly one. Yes. I first went to Afghanistan in 1987, when the Russians were still there. I subsequently spent time in Taliban-controlled Kabul and visited the front lines, with the Hindu Kush mountains rising in the background and with the Taliban and the anti-Taliban resistance exchanging artillery fire. The outcome of the conflict was being watched by the Americans, Russians and others. And in his Afghan hideaway, Osama Bin Laden was plotting 9/11 . As far as I was concerned, that was the ‘Great Game’."