I read The Far Pavilions (1978, UK) back in the 1980s while visiting my parents in Oman. It was hardly my usual reading fare, but the book choice was limited. (I also read Shirley Conran and Judith Krantz that holiday.) I enjoyed it so much I went on to read all of Kaye’s novels, and even tracked down copies of her Death in… series, which were hard to find at the time. Since then, I’ve watched the TV adaptation of The Far Pavilions, starring Ben Cross and Amy Irving, a couple of times, but it’s a poor adaptation.

The Far Pavilions is set during the 1860s and 1870s, when the Raj ruled much of India. The plot follows Ashton Pelham-Martyn, whose parents died when he was young, and he was brought up, believing himself to be Indian, by his nanny in the invented Himalayan kingdom of Gulkote. He learns he is British at age eleven and is shipped off to Britain, returning a decade later as an officer of the Corps of Guides. After going AWOL for a year to recover stolen rifles from Afghan tribesmen, he is suspended and charged with escorting a royal wedding party across India. One of the princesses proves to be his childhood playmate, Anjuli, and the two fall in love. She is married to the rana of Bhithor, and Ash is sent to various places in India until the Guides are ready to have him back. Then he learns the rana has died and the widows will commit suttee. So he rescues her and spirits her away. Meanwhile, there’s been trouble in Afghanistan – once labelled the “graveyard of empires” – thanks to the Great Game, with the Russians sending a mission. Ash goes undercover among the tribes. The Second Anglo-Afghan War takes place. Afterwards, the British send a mission to Kabul, which Ash tells them is ill-advised. And so it proves…

I’d forgotten how good this book was. The TV adaptation overrode some of my memories of the novel, and not for the better (it didn’t help they had a white actress in brown make-up play Anjuli). The Far Pavilions is also a thick novel, and does occasionally get bogged down.

Much of it is historically accurate – the two main characters are invented, as are the two princely states involved in the wedding party; but many of the supporting cast are real historical figures. Kaye is critical of the treatment of India by the Raj, and before it the East India Company, and of the English’s behaviour towards the Indian people. It’s clear where her sympathies lay (Kaye was born in India, and lived there a number of times throughout her life). There’s some lovely descriptive writing of the landscape, but Ash in an almost constant state of anguish gets a little wearying. The final section of the book, about the British mission in Kabul, is also drawn out somewhat. But it’s good stuff, and I’m glad I reread it. Recommended.

Incidentally, it was Kaye’s agent who persuaded her to write about India. She had previously published a series of murder-mysteries. He was Paul Scott… who later went on to write the Raj Quartet (1966-1975, UK), which I very much recommend.