Persia in the Great Game: Sir Percy Sykes - Explorer, Consul, Soldier, Spy - Softcover

'A superbly researched and engagingly written biography' -- Anthony Beevor 'Well-researched, hard-nosed, and engaging biography' -- FT 'Antony Wynn has produced a well researched and highly readable life of a character who, in his own day, astonished his contemporaries by his courage and his cheek' -- TLS 20030530 'Antony Wynn is full of marvellous, half-believable tales of bluff and daring' -- Sunday Telegraph 20040118 'A vivid reminder of the extraordinary lives and times of those who once played the Great Game. Sykes was one of the ablest, if most controversial, of these. A valuable addition to Great Game literature' -- Peter Hopkirk 20040118

Percy Sykes was sent to Persia by Army Intelligence in the 1890s, first as an explorer and spy, then to open consulates along Persia's eastern borders. His job was to deter Russian expansion towards India. Unpaid, he rode through thousands of miles of the harshest desert, marsh and mountain, often with his indomitable sister. When consul at Meshed in Iran during a very turbulent time, he bugged the Russian consulate and, armed only with diplomacy, single-handedly faced down a Russian attempt to annex north-east Persia. During World War, Wassmuss - the German Lawrence - incited the southern tribes of Persia against the British. Sykes, who knew everyone that mattered in Persia, was sent out to raise a regiment of local villagers to keep Persian oil safe for the Royal Navy. Sykes was no Colonel Blimp: he hunted gazelle with princes, read Persian poetry, sat at the feet of dervish masters and got to the heart of the country.