In the 1920s, the young J. R. Ackerley spent several months in India as the personal secretary to the maharajah of a small Indian principality. In his journals, Ackerley recorded the Maharajah's fantastically eccentric habits and riddling conversations, and the odd shambling day-to-day life of his court. "Hindoo Holiday" is an intimate and very funny account of an exceedingly strange place, and one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century travel literature.
Author Biography
J. R. Ackerley (1896-1967) was for many years the literary editor of the BBC magazine The Listener. His works include three memoirs, Hindoo Holiday, My Dog Tulip and My Father and Myself, and a novel, We Think the World of You. William Dalrymple is the author of five acclaimed works of history and travel, including City of Djinns; the best-selling From the Holy Mountain; and White Mughals, which won Britain's most prestigious history prize, the Wolfson. He divides his time between New Delhi and London, and is a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The Guardian.
