The Tartan Turban: In Search of Alexander Gardner Paperback – February 15, 2018

Alexander Gardner was a mysterious and controversial figure. How much of his story was made-up and how much real can never be known. John Keay retells the story as well as it can be pieced together, sharing with the reader the historian's challenges in putting the fragments of evidence together, and restoring Gardner's story, mostly, from debunking by earlier historians. This aspect of the book is somewhat like Hopkirk's excellent book The Quest for Kim. Keay uses the story of Gardner to illuminate the violent and lawless world of the Punjab, Afghanistan and Central Asia in the early 19th Century. Keay, through Gardner's first hand observations, shows the almost unbelievable self-destruction of the Sikh Empire, due to a power struggle among its leadership, which dissolved into a bloodbath of assassinations. With an aggressively expanding British presence on the Sikh frontier, ready to pounce at any sign of weakness, this was nothing short of national suicide. Even so, the Sikh empire was the greatest enemy Britain faced in Asia until the Japanese in World War II. If you have an interest in the Great Game, the British in India, the Sikh Empire, Fraser's Flashman novels, or the writing of Peter Hopkirk, you will enjoy this book.

I wanted to like this book but couldn't.Keay spends far too much time describing physical violence in prissy, distasteful, moral terms. i'm not trying to say this book is weak, but it seems to me, that at the very least, Gardner was a very hard guy existing in a world where physical violence was not immoral. I'll stress that: I didn't say 'not considered immoral', I said it 'wasn't immoral'. Keay spends so much time inserting words of apparently his own moral judgement, it genuinely ruined the book for me. I'm not sure who he was directing his book towards, to waste so much time describing commonplace acts as... let's see... 'vicious', 'murderous', 'horrific carnage', 'monstrous', 'repulsive', despicable', 'grievous', etc. You get the idea.Much of the rest of the writing is turgid.It's a shame, the subject is fascinating, but man, this is, in my opinion, a bad book.

I can't say that it is not worth reading as author is clear that it is a compellation of facts and story telling recorded in a narrative. It does discuss a time and era of history that is not readily studied nor was it recorded accurately by the oral cultures in which it took place. As challenging as it was...so is this book. It doesn't particularly flow and leaves a lot of the base cultural understanding or time line of battles and leaders to the reader to know without much explanation to the backdrop by the author of this text. I feel a better job could have been done to give more historical depth to this man's tale then is achieved here.

Gardner was one of the deadliest men in history. His story is believable despite his critics. I appreciate someone writing a book on him, he was indeed the greatest explorer of the 19th Century.The author John Keay defends him quite well, but there are a couple of parts that were annoying:1. It is doubtful that a fearless man like Alexander Gardner would have ever "feared" Maharaja Gulab Singh, especially when Gardner wrote a less than flattering description of him in public.2. The author doubts Gardner's story of his wife and baby being murdered in Afghanistan. However, if he had made up the whole story, he would have added more to it. It would have become like the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" if he really wanted to pump himself up some. The fact is that Gardner stated that the murderers had already been killed, and he then travels into Pakistan.3. It seems they could have done a better job of finding out who his parents were and there is evidence at every end that he is telling the truth.I've read plenty of autobiographies and people build themselves up big time.....but "Gordana Sahib" seems to just tell it like it is....There needs to be a movie on Alexander Gardner.Alexander Gardner is one of the most interesting people of all time, it is a must read.

There is so little known about Gardner that this book has nothing more than research notes to try to establish a life for the subject. A similar but satisfying read is " empire made "

Somewhat academic in parts, it tries to tell the story of a controversial character who lead the most adventuresome life.

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Loved it!

Fascinating book about the 19th century adventurer Alexander Gardner. By his own account, he was born in America, went to a jesuit school in Ireland, traveled to Cairo then ending up in Astrakhan, where an older brother lived. In 1819 he had enough of Astrakhan and travelled through the then-unmapped wilderness of Central Asia, surviving countless dangers - from the sadistic Khan of Khiva (who had another contemporary traveller castrated) to the bitter cold of the Pamir, Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountains, and of course the ubiquitous robbers, slavers and other unsavoury types that made Central Asia such an unwelcoming place. All this happened in the 1820s, making Gardner - if what he said is all true - a true pioneer. It would have made him effectively the first Westerner since Marco Polo to visit the 'Turkestan' regions of China, the first Westerner to see the red-haired and wine-drinking people of Kafiristan, and so on.As if this is not enough, he spent the 1830s and much of the 1840s in the service of the Sikh Empire, then a major regional power that was always interested in hiring European-ish mercenaries. As Commander of Artillery, he knew Ranjit Singh ('the Lion of the Punjab') and had a close-up view of the insanely bloody succession troubles in Lahore, after Ranjit finally succumbed to a combination of booze, old age and self-medication.Gardner has always been a bit of a mystery. There have been various allegations that he made up most of his life's story - his detractors could point to more than a few improbabilities and inconsistencies. It did not help that he had to piece events together later in life, from fairly distant memory - and without the aid of marked maps when he actually travelled (there weren't any). In contrast to the likes of Connolly or 'Bokhara' Burnes, he had no specific agenda nor anyone he reported to - so no reason to write anything down. On top of this, Gardner had to go native to a very large extent just to survive - in these regions that may well have meant being a robber, slaver, or suchlike. This might just have given him yet more incentive to mend the truth a bit here, and leave out problematic episodes there. One of the intriguing elements of this book is Keay's painstaking research into who was more likely to be right - Gardner or his detractors.This book has strong links with three other books that I thoroughly enjoyed:- First, Macdonald Fraser's "Flashman and the Mountain of Light" (in which Gardner makes an appearance, helping Flashman to survive against all odds) - this fantastic book features Flashman as undercover political officer in Lahore just before and during the First Anglo-Sikh War.- Second, Peter Hopkirk's completely epic "The Great Game" - this book does not even mention Gardner as he was arguably not a real 'player', but comes to mind time and again when reading about Gardner's earlier travels.- Last, Ben McIntyre's most interesting "The man who would be King" about Gardner's compatriot and contemporary Josiah Harlan, who also roamed through Afghanistan (even briefly carving out his own Kingdom) and who also served the Sikh Empire (albeit in reverse order, compared to Gardner). In fact, the two of them even met, and got along well.To conclude, 'Tartan Turban' is a highly unique and mostly enjoyable book, although at times I found Keay's detailed research just a little too much.Overall verdict: definitely recommended. For those who prefer the bigger picture, try Hopkirk. For those who prefer a read that is a bit more pacy and racy, go Flashman.

I love reading about interesting characters and this book is no exception. The story of Alexander Gardner is quite remarkable and the author tries to negotiate his way through fact and myth. Some might suggest it's all lies, others might think you couldn't make it up. Either way we may never know the truth behind all aspects of his life, but that really doesn't seem to matter.

Really interesting account of one of the more enigmatic Victorian adventurers. Combines fascinating historical & geographical references.

Interesting but a bit long winded, worth reading to discover some very interesting facts. Tells you about what happened in Lahore during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s time.

What a joy