Christopher Kremmer
Author of The Carpet Wars: From Kabul to Baghdad: A Ten-Year Journey Along Ancient Trade Routes
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of Allen and Unwin
Works by Christopher Kremmer
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Kremmer, Christopher
- Birthdate
- 1958
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- Australia
Members
Reviews
The Carpet Wars: From Kabul to Baghdad: A Ten-Year… by Christopher Kremmer
Luz Harvey
A slightly disjointed amble through central Asia, taking in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. A bunch of not overly connected travel pieces makes "The Carpet Wars" sometimes confuses the reader as to when events happened and the sometimes oblique connections to carpets can make digesting the book hard work. Kremmer makes up for this though with some evocative writing of the areas of central Asia that rarely appears in travel articles.
The author was a journalist based in India for many years and covers some memorable moments from his time there, plus his then current visit to India with his Indian wife and family. Kremmer recounts his presence at such important events in Indian history like the scattering of Gandhi's ashes following their discovery, as well as the ruling Congress Party and their then grip on India.
Certainly not the worst travelogue I've read.
Certainly not the worst travelogue I've read.
This non fiction account of Kremmer's extraordinary quest to establish the fate of the Laos Royal Family is gripping in its own right, but even more astonishing when read alongside the fictionalised account of the same events by Colin Cotterill, in his 'Disco for the Departed'. Kremmer is a fine journalist, but here he seems to channel LeCarre's 'Honorable Schoolboy' at his most reckless. How he survived without being shot or imprisoned - or at least deported - is a mystery. As both Cotterill and Kremmer make clear, this is not a subject that the Laotian authorities care to discuss much. The author's website confirms that this story was subsequently updated by Kremmer and re-issued under the title 'The Bamboo Palace'.… (more)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 6
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 507
- Popularity
- #48,898
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 12
- ISBNs
- 32
- Languages
- 2
- Favorited
- 1