The Last Englishmen: Love, War, and the End of Empire

Baker (The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism) provides an elegant and complex narrative of India and the British Empire in the interwar, wartime, and postwar years through the lives of geologist John Auden (1903–1991), brother of W.H.; surveyor Michael Spender (1906–1945), brother of Stephen; and assorted others. Based on extensive archival research, the book chronicles the two Englishmen’s efforts to explore, map, and understand the Himalayas within the political context of a waning British Empire, in which quests to reach the summit of Mount Everest “neatly dramatized Britain’s struggle... to project its imperial power over a restive India.” The drama and devastation of world war and the partition of India add layers of intricacy to the tale, as do the experiences of several other characters: a woman who both men fell in love with, an Indian poet and his intellectual quarrels, the two men’s literary-minded brothers, a communist spy, and more. While the book can occasionally be somewhat convoluted, Baker skillfully navigates numerous interlaced tales, illuminating in a lively and stylistic fashion both the inner lives of intriguing individuals and weightier geopolitical developments. Agent: Sarah Chalfant, The Wylie Agency (U.K.). (Aug.)