The Last Englishmen

June 1, 2018
A Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist takes readers on a journey through the Indian subcontinent at the closing of the British Empire.Baker (The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism, 2011, etc.) narrates the stories of geologist John Auden (1903-1991) and surveyor Michael Spender (1906-1945), who both thoroughly explored this mysterious region of the world. They worked together on a survey expedition to map K2 and the surrounding Himalayas in a time before nylon tents, fleece bedrolls, and oxygen tanks. Harboring a secret desire to conquer Mount Everest, Auden diligently studied and surveyed the mountains to learn how and why the range was formed. While he, as many, did not accept the theory of continental drift, he was the first to notice the Main Central Thrust, the fault that runs the 1,500-mile length of the Himalayas. His observations and classifications of the composition and arrangement of rocks fueled countless post-World War II projects as India modernized. Spender brought his craft of photogrammetry--making measurements from photos (aerial and otherwise)--to create topographic maps. During the war, he helped define the art of photographic interpretation. With a host of interpreters working for him, he identified Nazis amassing equipment for invasions. Refreshingly, Baker doesn't just focus on these two remarkable men. She also engagingly discusses the men and women who explored world events with art, poetry, and prose, seeing different angles and using different tools. W.H. Auden (John's brother), Stephen Spender (Michael's brother), Nancy Sharp (Michael's wife), and Chris Isherwood all helped to map the cultural landscape of that era. In India, there was Sudhin Datta, a Bengali intellectual who founded Parichay, a literary journal for men of letters, and was the host of a weekly discussion group in Calcutta.Seemingly covering disparate topics, Baker beautifully connects them all with an incisive, clear writing style and sharp descriptions of the terrain. A book for any readers curious about India after 1900.

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July 1, 2018

Baker (In Extremis) tells the stories of John Auden (1903-91), geologist of the Himalayas, and Michael Spender (1906-45), surveyor of Mount Everest, and the people around them, including their brothers who achieved literary acclaim. The author maintains a focus on Auden and Spender's aspirations of being the first to summit Everest, while also covering much of the turmoil and politics involved as Britain attempted to retain control over India. Baker's talent for crafting an intriguing narrative provides thorough views of the characters and settings involved, but the blend of the men's stories and historical details isn't always seamless. Similar works, such as Shashi Tharoor's Inglorious Empire, also cover the negative influence of the British Empire on the economy and life in India, but Baker's angle is distinct in its use of Auden and Spender's stories to mirror Britain's struggle to maintain its position of power. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in the history of India and the British Empire's influence on the country.--Katie McGaha, L.A.P.L., Agoura Hills

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 23, 2018
Baker (The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism) provides an elegant and complex narrative of India and the British Empire in the interwar, wartime, and postwar years through the lives of geologist John Auden (1903–1991), brother of W.H.; surveyor Michael Spender (1906–1945), brother of Stephen; and assorted others. Based on extensive archival research, the book chronicles the two Englishmen’s efforts to explore, map, and understand the Himalayas within the political context of a waning British Empire, in which quests to reach the summit of Mount Everest “neatly dramatized Britain’s struggle... to project its imperial power over a restive India.” The drama and devastation of world war and the partition of India add layers of intricacy to the tale, as do the experiences of several other characters: a woman who both men fell in love with, an Indian poet and his intellectual quarrels, the two men’s literary-minded brothers, a communist spy, and more. While the book can occasionally be somewhat convoluted, Baker skillfully navigates numerous interlaced tales, illuminating in a lively and stylistic fashion both the inner lives of intriguing individuals and weightier geopolitical developments. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, The Wylie Agency (U.K.).

Starred review from July 1, 2018
Baker continues her exceptionally perceptive investigation into the lives of Westerners in South Asia, following A Blue Hand: The Beats in India (2008) and The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism (2011). In her most creatively conceived, deeply delving, and wizardly blend of biography and history to date, she vividly presents British poets W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender, but this many-faceted group portrait is propelled by their less-sung but no-less-fascinating brothers, geologist and explorer John Auden and mountain climber and surveyor Michael Spender, who accomplished pioneering work in the Himalayas before and during WWII and the crumbling of the Raj. Baker recounts their risky fieldwork and complex accomplishments in fluent detail while illuminating social and aesthetic innovations underway in London and, most strikingly, in the influential Calcutta salon of Bengali poet Sudhindranath Datta. Baker's extensive research is seamlessly subsumed within the flow of her novelistic narrative as she brings to life landscapes magnificent and terrifying; volatile love affairs, especially those of the daring, long-overlooked artist Nancy Sharp, who was married to Michael Spender; seismic political turmoil; and gripping scenes of war. With a uniquely encompassing vision, command of complex information, and profound insight, Baker dramatically chronicles the seminal scientific and artistic explorations of four courageous, ingenious brothers whose achievements enrich our understanding of the still-molten, sharply relevant past.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)