Peter Stuart Hopkirk (15 December 1930 – 22 August 2014) was a British

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, author and historian who wrote six books about the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

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and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the fo ...

Biography

Peter Hopkirk was born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

, the son of Frank Stuart and Mary Hopkirk (' Perkins); his father was an Anglican priest. The family hailed originally from Roxburghshire in the borders of Scotland. He grew up at Danbury, Essex. Hopkirk was educated at the

Dragon School ("Reach for the Sun") , established = 1877 , closed = , type = Preparatory day and boarding school and Pre-Prep school , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Emma Goldsm ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. From an early age he was interested in spy novels carrying around Buchan's ''Greenmantle'' and Kipling's ''Kim''. While at the Dragon he played rugby and shot at Bisley. During his

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

, he was commissioned in the Royal Hampshire Regiment in January 1950 and served as a subaltern in the King's African Rifles in the same battalion as Lance-Corporal

Idi Amin Idi Amin Dada Oumee (, ; 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern w ...

. Before turning full-time author, he was an ITN reporter and newscaster for two years, the

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correspondent of Lord Beaverbrook's '' The Sunday Express'', and then worked for nearly twenty years on ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

''; five as its chief reporter, and latterly as a

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

and

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The t ...

specialist. In the 1950s, he edited the

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news magazine ''Drum'', sister paper to the South African ''Drum''. Hopkirk travelled widely over many years in the regions where his six books are set –

, Central Asia, the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historica ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, and eastern Turkey. He sought a life in dangerous situations as a journalist, being sent to Algeria to cover the revolutionary crisis in the French colonial administration. Inspired by Fitzroy Maclean's '' Eastern Approaches'' he began to think about the Far East. During the

Bay of Pigs The Bay of Pigs ( es, Bahía de los Cochinos) is an inlet of the Gulf of Cazones located on the southern coast of Cuba. By 1910, it was included in Santa Clara Province, and then instead to Las Villas Province by 1961, but in 1976, it was rea ...

fiasco in 1961 he was based in New York covering the events for the ''Express''. Hopkirk was twice arrested and held in secret police cells, once in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

, where he was accused of spying for the US Government; his contacts in Mexico obtained his release. In the Middle East, he was hijacked by Arab terrorists in Beirut, which led to his expulsion. The PLO hijacked his plane, a KLM jet bound for Amsterdam at the height of the economic oil crises in 1974. Hopkirk confronted them and persuaded the armed gang to surrender their weapons. His works have been officially translated into fourteen languages, and unofficial versions in local languages are apt to appear in the bazaars of Central Asia. In 1999, he was awarded the Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal for his writing and travels by the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Much of his research came from the India Office archives in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

(in London's St Pancras). Hopkirk's wife Kathleen Hopkirk wrote ''A Traveller's Companion to Central Asia'', published by John Murray in 1994 (). Hopkirk died on 22 August 2014 at the age of 83.

Awards

* Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Prize (1999)

Works

*''Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia'', 1980 **on early European explorations of the Taklamakan Desert *''Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Race for Lhasa'', 1982 *''Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin's Dream of an Empire in Asia'', 1984 *'' The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia'', John Murray, 1990, **
The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
', Kodansha International, 1992, *''On Secret Service East of Constantinople: The Great Game and the Great War'', 1994 **published in the US as: ''Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire'', 1995 **on plots by the Germans to raise Central Asia against the British during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

*''Quest for Kim: in Search of Kipling's Great Game'', 1996; **a travelogue to the locations of Kipling's novel '' Kim'' ;Testimonials

Patrick Leigh Fermor Sir Patrick Michael Leigh Fermor (11 February 1915 – 10 June 2011) was an English writer, scholar, soldier and polyglot. He played a prominent role in the Cretan resistance during the Second World War, and was widely seen as Britain's great ...

in ''The Daily Telegraph'' nominated ''The Great Game'' for the Book of the Year. Edward Said in ''Punch'' magazine called it a "superb account" and the ''FT'' declared it to be "immensely readable and magisterial". Hopkirk, wrote Lord Longford, displayed "astonishing erudition."

References

Citations

Sources

; Secondary sources *

External links

Peter Hopkirk - Historian of 'The Great Game'Peter Hopkirk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkirk, Peter British historians British military historians British male journalists 1930 births 2014 deaths Central Asian studies scholars King's African Rifles officers People educated at The Dragon School Royal Hampshire Regiment officers