I fear I am pretty rubbish at giving my writing commercial appeal. Not only have I just completed a biography of somebody most people have never heard of, but I find myself writing about aspects of his life which are as non-commercial as imaginable. In a story of spies, disguises, sex, assassinations, battles, heroism, Knights Templar(!), exploration and more sex, I often find myself writing about minute details of the most mundane things.
I find I want to recreate for readers the world that Alexander Burnes encountered in his everyday existence, the stuff of his normal life, what he actually did all day apart from the adventure and spying. So I also write about accounts, and tents, and maps and packing lists. I fear that I must tax the patience of my poor publisher. Here are a couple of extracts from the final manuscript. I will never be able to write as well as William Dalrymple, but he won’t tell you the dimensions of a tent pole or how receipts were processed.
The book should be out in August.
Tents
If Burnes performed well it might open up permanent appointment to the Political Branch. The reports he submitted are therefore painstaking. In the first, marked ‘Camp at Keerawow, 14th December 1829’,1 he apologised for reporting in such detail. He noted he was the first European ever to visit other than on a punitive raid, and added he was motivated by a ‘great anxiety to shew myself worthy of the honour and trust which the Government have conferred upon me’.
He lived a great deal of his life in tents, and it is important to form a picture of these camps. British officers had large, individual tents. These would be taken ahead by bearers and pitched, ready for the officers’ arrival in the evening. Their escort and servants would inhabit numerous tents around them. The camp would be very diffuse, as men of differing castes could not share a tent or cook their food together. Camp-fires were therefore numerous and small. Horses and baggage animals would be pegged or corralled on the margin of the camp.
The kind of tent in which Burnes slept would have had both an inner and an outer; valets and bodyguards were sometimes allowed to sleep in the space between. At the entrance and ventilation points would be hung additional screens called tatties, kept soaked to provide cooling through evaporation. In very hot weather the British sank a pit under the tent. The floor was covered with rich carpet. The official issue tent for a subaltern, the most junior officer, was a substantial twelve feet square, but many officers used larger, private tents.2
A contemporary traveller in India, Charles Hugel, had a tent with poles twenty-five feet high – like a modern British telegraph pole. The outer roof alone of Hugel’s tent weighed 600lb, and the fabric needed six horses to carry it. William Hough wrote that when a regiment’s tents were brought down by a storm, sleeping officers were in danger of being killed by falling tent poles. There are numerous references to marches delayed by heavy rain, because the wet tents were too heavy to be lifted.
Accountancy
Mundane worries intruded. There is always an irresoluble conflict between the exigencies of spying and the needs of public accountancy. Payments for information, informal messengers, gifts, payments for supplies of provisions from locals who may be illiterate – all had somehow to be accounted for. A significant proportion of the manuscripts indexed under ‘Alexander Burnes’ in the National Archives of India consist of detailed querying of his accounts.
To give but one example, in the midst of his vital negotiations with Dost, on 4 December 1837, Burnes sat down to submit his mission accounts for the period when his mission had been living largely on boats and travelling from Karachi to Sukkur. Burnes made no attempt to provide receipts, and instead wrote:
Cabool
4th December 1837
Sir,
I have the honour to forward statements of my actual receipts and disbursements for the months of January, February and March 1837, which I declare upon honour to be correct and according to the best of my knowledge.
I have etc
Alexr. Burnes
On a Mission to Cabool
To The Accountant General
Fort WilliamOn 10 October 1838 this was forwarded from Accountant General Charles Morley to the Secretary in Bombay, with a sniffy note:
Sir,
The Civil Authority having returned the accounts (noted in the margin) of the receipts and charges connected to Captain Burnes’ Mission to Cabool – unaudited, from the circumstance of their not having been approved [. . .] I have the honor to forward them for the orders of His Honor the President in Council, together with a copy of a letter from Captain Burnes to my address [. . .] which accompanied them.
It will be observed that the charges exhibited in the accounts are unsupported by original receipts, or any other document than the declaration furnished in the conclusion of Captain Burnes’ communication before adverted to, and that the funds have been raised by Bills upon Presentation under the Bombay Presidency.2Bombay batted them straight back to Calcutta advising that they would need to be considered by Auckland himself:
I have been directed [. . .] to [. . .] point out that the accounts having been rendered by Captain Burnes without vouchers it will be necessary if the Governor-General considers the charges to be moderate and warranted that His Lordship should authorize their being passed to Captain Burnes in account leaving receipts to be adjusted and checked by comparison with the accounts of the Treasury on which his bills were drawn.3
It is not a small point. Empires live on their accounting – some of the oldest documents in the world are surviving accounts of Mesopotamian empires, indelibly inscribed on clay tablets. The commercial origins of the EIC made accounting even more central to its culture. The pressure on Burnes over accounts was a major worry; if the government repudiated his bills he could be ruined.
Moorcroft and Gerard both died penniless for this very reason. Burnes had already lost money redeeming Gerard’s bills. Mohan Lal’s life was devastated by government refusing to refund payments made in the last days of the Kabul garrison. Edward Stirling’s expenses were turned down entirely. Stoddart’s Herat accounts were repudiated and many of Arthur Conolly’s bills remained unhonoured at his death. The entire story of the Great Game on the British side has this strange undercurrent.
Actually reads very well to me and I consider myself functionally illiterate!
Presumably the lack of accountability worked both ways for generals who might acquire spoils of their conquests?
Strangely enough, that was very organised too, at least in this period. One thing which struck me very strongly was the absolutely routine mass rape of women by British forces (both “European” and “native”) when they took a town. The looting was riotous but organised to a remarkable degree. Shares were allocated. The commanding officer got one eighth of the value of everything looted from a town. These could be very large fortunes, but even routine “prize money” was serious income.
Not only Generals. Drake’s controversial solo action to capture the Rosario during the Spanish Armada was allegedly arranged to take place out of view of the rest of the fleet so that he didn’t have to share the spoils (in naval convention shared by all ships in sight at the moment of capture).
Some people have heard of him. Philip Hensher’s novel, “The Mulberry Empire” features Alexander Burnes as one of the central characters. It was reviewed in the Observer in 2002.
Indeed Jane. It is also quite interesting because Hensher, against the accepted historical narrative, portrays Charles Masson as a very sinister character, and my biography of Burnes coms to the same conclusion from a different direction.
In fiction, he is probably better known through Flashman, the first book in the George MacDonald Fraser series.
It promises to be very entertaining, as well as full of stuff an ignoramus like me never knew.
Roll up! Roll up!
Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game Hardcover – 1 Sep 2016
by Craig Murray (Author)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sikunder-Burnes-Master-Great-Game/dp/1910900079/ref=sr_1_10?
This is an astonishing true tale of espionage, journeys in disguise, secret messages, double agents, assassinations and sexual intrigue. Alexander Burnes was one of the most accomplished spies Britain ever produced and the main antagonist of the Great Game as Britain strove with Russia for control of Central Asia and the routes to the Raj. There are many lessons for the present day in this tale of the folly of invading Afghanistan and Anglo-Russian tensions in the Caucasus. Murray’s meticulous study has unearthed original manuscripts from Montrose to Mumbai to put together a detailed study of how British secret agents operated in India. The story of Burnes’ life has a cast of extraordinary figures, including Queen Victoria, King William IV, Earl Grey, Benjamin Disraeli, Lola Montez, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Among the unexpected discoveries are that Alexander and his brother James invented the myths about the Knights Templars and Scottish Freemasons which are the foundation of the Da Vinci Code; and that the most famous nineteenth-century scholar of Afghanistan was a double agent for Russia.
Thanks. I had no idea that was up yet! Makes me feel like it’s really happening.
no kindle version?
There will be eventually. I don’t know if kindle will be released simultaneously with the hardback.
Where does Flashman appear?
Oh, perhaps I should have read the piece first. Let’s hope it isn’t the pop-up version….
What’s the problem? Doesn’t read like you’re getting bogged down in the anorak minutiae, but you’re giving enough detail to make the daily life of empire accessible to the general readership. This is exactly the kind of thing we need to read in historical biology, and exactly the kind of thing you don’t get in general period history. Might even put some royalties your way myself.
Reminds me of an except from Alan Partridge – We need to talk about Alan where he describes re-organising his desktop several times to make it more efficient and ergonomic. Among other things, he conducted a full stationery audit and re-positioned his pen jar. He sketched it out.
“I fear I am pretty rubbish at giving my writing commercial appeal. Not only have I just completed a biography of somebody most people have never heard of, but I find myself writing about aspects of his life which are as non-commercial as imaginable.”
Don’t think it matters much. You seem to have a talent for making everything you write about seem interesting, and it’s a rare gift. I hope you’ll be doing signing tours.
It reads well to me. The detail is precisely what is necessary to put things in context. For example, what you tell us about tents, both poles and fabrics, suggests that logistics must have been a very large problem, especially when one adds on the jackets and porcelain services, for dinner every night in the jungle. All of which puts the disastrous retreat from Kabul into perspective-all those tent poles, all those horses, all that fodder….
It must be very hard to do such entirely different things as blogging and serious scholarship at the same time. Which puts the magnitude of your achievement, itself, into perspective.
I cannot imagine that your book will not sell well or that Dalrymple will not be among the first to review it.
I found the bit about tents interesting. I wasn’t so hot on the accountancy stuff, but that’s just me. I guess accountants who are keen on camping will love it; but seriously, it’s hard to judge brief excerpts like this when taken out of context of the do-daring stuff.
I found ‘Murder in Samarkand’ to be a right good read, and I’m sure this one will be too.
Best of luck with it.
Didn’t paramount buy the movie rights for that and shelved it? Hmmm talk about silencing dissent
Interesting to note that this correspondence occurred when MP Henry Brougham was at his most powerful, soon to be the reforming Lord Chancellor who put public expenditure to a meat axe, only to fall afoul with his Whig colleagues because of his overwork which resulted in his becoming a drug addict, and by the time his war with them reached fever pitch, few complained as much about it since the ex-Chacellor was getting a pension of 5,000 pounds a year.
Yes. The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s salary was £7,500 at this time, higher than the Prime Minister. But substantially lower than an East India Company opium agent, which is interesting. Getting a monopoly on opium was one of the drivers of the First Afghan War. Almost never mentioned – I am not even certain Dalrymple mentioned it.
Plus ca change.
It’s just up my alley, Craig, and I shall be getting my own copy as soon as it is available.
Will even make sure that Yale’s Sterling Library gets a copy.
Is there some confusion between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Lord Chancellor?
It would not surprise me if Brougham had been responsible, in Cabinet, for retrenching expenditure but he was never, so far as I know, close to the Exchequer.
As a matter of personal interest, exactly when, in what year, did “this correspondence” take place?
Not in my mind, Bevin.
John Scott, Lord Althorp, was the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the Commons, and Brougham was the Lord Chancellor.
They were the closest colleagues, resulting in what Brougham was calling for, especially in The Times as ‘Radical’, was carried out by Althorp.
Althorp even quit, like George Younger did when the ‘Made Lady’ fired Geoffrey Howe, when Melbourne fired Brougham.
The dates of the correspondence is on the pieces Craig posted.
No I didn’t think that you were confused. But that is John Spencer Lord Althorp, I believe rather than Lord Eldon-John Scott- who I suspect was Brougham’s predecessor of the Woolsack.
They were a very mixed bunch some old Whigs who had kept the faith, others near radicals of a literary turn and then there were the Melbournes and Palmerstons who had either served as Tories, for decades in Palmerston’s case or sold out to Canning like Melbourne, a very nasty piece of work.
I had no idea that Craig’s period was this early-the Reform Ministry. That makes it more interesting to me.
You are right about the so called Whigs, and Althorp’s family name. Should always check the simplest of things, especially when one is in the late 80s.
I found the 1830s of UK history the most interesting decade of all.
“I fear I am pretty rubbish at giving my writing commercial appeal.”
______________
Well Craig according to Richard Morton Jack’s book on British Sleaze, it took a fleet of editors to make Jefferey Archer”s novels readable. If he can make a bundle of cash from his books, then there’s hope for you yet.
it took a fleet of editors to make Jefferey Archer”s novels readable.
And they failed.
Craig, I think your writing style is fine. Your book Murder in Samarkand is one of the most exciting things I have ever read. I knew it was true, and I could feel for you.
Never knock Tents – my Irish friend who is even older than me is not only converting a Ford Transit to a Camper Van…she also now has all the materials for a Traditional Wigwam…
She is the girl, who casually came round our house a couple of years ago, and said she was going to Russia, China and Mongolia by herself on this (its a train)
http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm
…and could we help plan her trip…
This girl has got some balls and some lovely Irish Charm
I reckon she could cross any border in the world…but I suggested it would be a good idea to get the visas first…which she did.
I wouldn’t have the balls to do that just as all this nonsense was kicking off in The Ukraine.
But she did.
She has no fear whatsover – she just does it
Finian Cunningham in Fine Form
“America – The Most Frightened Nation On Earth”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44707.htm
Tony
Right, Tony, Cunningham is good on Clooney, but he left out his being involved in setting up depressed FBI agent Steve Ivens as a potential LHO in Burbank when Obama visited the Clooneys in LA during May 2012 on a presidential fundraiser.
And Cunningham too had the wrong spooks who were murdered in the Chinook helicopter crash in June 1994 at the Mull of Kintyre.
Craig,
When you say:-
” I often find myself writing about minute details of the most mundane things.”
Do you mean – genetalia? And yet, still no one gets a rise from your advertising pitch.
Something must really be wrong here.
Back to the drawing board.
Anyway, all the best with your new product – regardless.
Isn’t that “genitalia” – not – “genetalia” ( speaking of minute points).
Where is “Lysias” when we need him? 🙂
(piercing whistle heard from Habbbabkuk’s corner…)
Looks like a very interesting book about a very interesting period. Much better to include details of everyday life than to confine the account to big political issues etc. Many history books don’t give any clear idea of what things cost or how they were paid for, exchange rates, equivalent in modern money, etc. Interesting to know what currency they used and why some currencies were more acceptable, e.g. in Ethiopia they liked Maria Theresa dollars for some reason.
About all those separate campfires- did they each have to light their own fires or could they borrow fire from each other, and how did they light the fires- matches, tinderbox? And did they carry wood as well as fodder if travelling in areas with few trees?
“Interesting to know what currency they used and why some currencies were more acceptable, e.g. in Ethiopia they liked Maria Theresa dollars for some reason.”
I think that they got this, very sensible, taste from Yemenis who paid them in thalers for qat. It used to be necessary when travelling on the Yemen, including the Aden Protectorate, and Oman to carry bags of silver dollars with you. I believe that they were minted in Birmingham and they were worth five shillings, which, of course, was always the price of the dollar in English slang. Rumour had it that they could be bought more cheaply in places like Kuwait and trading them could be quite profitable. I used to keep a handful of them, they were heavy, carried the Empress’s profile and were inscribed in Latin.
Craig I enjoy your blog immense though rarely comment. I was introduced to it by my son who I will ask to get me your book for Xmas. Looks a right riveting read to me. Murder in Samarkand was great too, made more gripping by the fact I was there in 2003. No plans to visit Afghanistan at the moment!
More people have heard of Sekundar Burnes than you may think. He was a prominent character in George MacDonald Fraser’s novel ‘Flashman’, the first in a highly successful series.
Indeed Andrew, reading Flashman thirty years ago was one of the things that led to my eventually writing this biography.
Rape as a weapon of war. Of peace even , in Rochdale, Oxford and Birmingham.
Talking of the great game, USUKIS hostility to Russia has accelerated the demise of the petrodollar in favour of the petroyuan. This is the point at which the evil, nasty, swivel-eyed masochism of Anglo-Saxon Imperialism points its prow vertically towards the bottom of history.
Congratulations on your book. Plus ca change, maybe, but the inherent logic and humanity of socialism over capitalism will make the history of the great game look like the battle writings of Tacitus in a few years time.
Well done for sticking your little oar into the end of English imperialism at the right time.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article191837.html
Ive heard of him. He appears in the Flashman Papers. I hope that George macdonald Frasers portrayal fits your book! Looking forward to reading it.
Congratulations. The technical stuff, as one would expect, is highly readable.
“The Joys of Accountancy and Tents” sounds like the title of an album by Brian Eno.
Well, I’m looking forward to it – Dalrymple’s Return of a King whetted my appetite for more on Burnes. How much do you cover his extraordinary death? Gruesome but compulsive! Also tells you so much about the price of British imperialism.
And don’t shy from the detail – helps bring it home to modern minds…
Sounds gripping to me.
I can’t wait.
Fascinating snippets. Book should be a great read.
Just out of curiosity, is your Burnes in any way connected with the Scottish law firm of Burness?
He is indeed. It was founded in Montrose by his grandfather, then his father James and then his brother Adam took it on. At some stage after Burnes death it moved down to Edinburgh, and changed its name to Burness. I therefore was unable to locate it during my researches. It is now Burness Paul, of course. I discovered it was the same firm by an extraordinary coincidence. The publisher’s copy-editor had a framed portrait and signature of Burnes on her dining room wall. It turned out her husband was a retired partner at Burness!
Thanks Craig. Curiosity more than satisfied.
Craig hope you’ve finished this book and it’s finally in the publishers hands……. Can’t wait to get hands on…..
Talking about books coming out, Kenny MacAskill’s book is out soon. Helpfully the Sunday Herald contacted the FCO re some claims in book regarding Government doc. Pointing finger at Palestinian activity ……. Now there has to be strong chance this book will never see the light of day……BTW last edition of this paper before Holyrood election stated on front page that Victory was “Guaranteed” ….. And this paper claims to be Pro independence.
Detail is important. An army may march on it’s stomach but often died in the latrines! Or at least by being to close to the latrines.
It was during the Napoleonic Wars that the Surgeon General (a Scot) realised the danger of human waste to close to the camps and had the latrines built away from the main camps.
This was one of the reasons the British Army was successful. They had only a fraction of the men suffering from diarrhoea that the French did.
Craig:
You know, I have no idea who Alexander Burnes was, but I find myself increasingly interested in his story. I will indeed pick up a copy of your book when it comes out.
Thanks,
Paul.
There are too many books that gloss over details. Take a typical biography of a business tycoon where they’ll drag out the stuff about their birth (a stormy winter night), family (we was poor but happy), school days (played a lot of pranks and scraped a few ‘O’ grades) and first days of business (me and a dog in Dad’s garage and a clapped out Ford Transit) then next paragraph … they are 100 people with 20 shops up and down the country. How the hell did that happen? Divine intervention?
Life’s in the details.
Looking forward to the book, Craig.
Craig I actually share your enthusiasm for these figures, in a similar sphere.
Have you ever heard of HRP Dickson? he was the British political agent in Kuwait in the 1930s. His “rab of the Desert” is a classic and expensive to obtain book. gives valuable insights into the Saudi mindset even today.