In September 1840, intelligence officer Captain Arthur Conolly set out from Kabul for Central Asia. His orders were to persuade its rulers to unite to resist Russian advances and open their markets to British goods. Conolly, a devout Christian and abolitionist, had a higher agenda: to free thousands of slaves.Writing to a fellow officer, he described his mission as part of a " great game." Quoted by Rudyard Kipling in his novel Kim, historians would use the phrase to describe the geopolitical rivalry between the two nineteenth century superpowers- Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia- in a vast area from Persia to Tibet.The khans of Khiva and Kokand warned Conolly not to travel to Bokhara, where the emir had imprisoned a British officer suspected of spying. Conolly went anyway, was arrested and thrown into prison.Eighteen months later, sketchy accounts reached London that the two officers had been executed, but were contradicted by reports that they were rotting in a cell in the emir' s palace. It would take an expedition from England by an eccentric, multilingual clergyman to learn the truth.
About the Author :
David Mould, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University, has traveled widely in Asia and southern Africa as a communications consultant, trainer and researcher. Born in the UK, he worked as a newspaper reporter and TV journalist before moving to the United States for post-graduate study. He has written books and articles on a range of historical topics, including American news and documentary film in Work War One, canals and railroads in the Midwest, oral history, and post-Soviet media in Central Asia. His books include Postcards from the Borderlands(Open Books, 2020), Monsoon Postcards: Indian Ocean Journeys(Ohio University Press, 2019). Postcards from Stanland: Journeys in Central Asia(Ohio University Press, 2016), Catching Stories: A Practical Guide to Oral History(co-author, Ohio University Press, 2009), and American Newsfilm 1914-1919: The Underexposed War(Routledge, 2014). His travel essays and history articles have been published in Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, Times Higher Education, History Ireland, The Montreal Review, History News Network and other print and online outlets. Kirkus Reviews describes him as "a genial travel guide ... an academic who does not write like an academic." He has featured in two segments on Travel with Rick Steveson public radio and other radio shows and podcasts. His last book for Blackwater Press was Mission to Madagascar: The Sergeant, the King, and the Slave Trade(2023), a biography of another unsung nineteenth-century hero who lived by his guile and wits as he negotiated the end to the slave trade from the island in the southwest Indian Ocean.
Review :
The legendary "Great Game" of imperial rivalry in Central Asia began long before it was immortalised by Rudyard Kipling. At its centre stood the British officer and spy Arthur Conolly, whose daring missions and tragic death in Bokhara epitomised the risks of nineteenth-century intelligence work. Reconstructing Conolly's world, this book reveals how the improvisational espionage of empire laid the foundations for the modern intelligence systems that still shape global strategy today.
--Peter John Brobst, Associate Professor of History, Ohio University, author of The Future of The Great Game: Sir Olaf Caroe, India's Independence, and the Defense of Asia (University of Akron Press, 2005)
The more one considers the complexity of Connolly's life and times as a British agent, the more one comes to respect the skill of David Mould as a writer and historian. Though the events in this book took place nearly 200 years ago, the setting is very relevant when one considers the current turmoil in Afghanistan, Russia, and Iran.
--Pete Kosky, author and historian
Arthur Connolly was a man with a vision and impressive faith who ranged over tremendous distances and overcame hardships and risk in pursuit of his ideals and service to his country. A story set in the context of the competition between Great Britain and Imperial Russia, featuring medieval states and opportunistic highwaymen.
--John Brennan, Ohio University
