Tales from the Wild Wild Gobi

Tales from the Wild Wild Gobi-CONTENTS A Note on Chinese Names Map of Central Asia Prologue I PRELUDE TO THE GOBI, 1893-1923 THE GOBLIN SUN YOUR DAUGHTER ARRIVED PRECIOUS PEARL, ALL BRAVE, POLISHED JADE II THE GOBI IN TUMULT, 1924-1936 LIFE BEHIND THE WALL OF SPEARS WIPE OUT THE BOUNDARY-MARKS! A SAVAGE WARLORD OF THE GREAT PLAINS THE YELLOW CROSSING FORCED MARCHES REDS, A ROUT, AND EURASIA III OUT OF THE GOBI THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS WHO WAS WHO IN THE DESERT OF DREAMS Acknowledgements Text Credits Illustrations Selected Bibliography ABOUT THE BOOK-Tales from the Wild Wild Gobi The Gobi Desert ... A wild and desolate wasteland — where no man dared to venture. Mildred Cable and Eva and Francesca French, set off into this wilderness during one of China's greatest periods of upheaval. The backdrop to the world of these three Englishwomen was the destruction of the old and the forging of a new China. They went as missionaries, with high-flown dreams to fulfil on behalf of the Church. The other wanderers they encountered there — explorers, archaeologists, soldiers-of-fortune, eccentrics of every hue — had also been enticed into that most mysterious of deserts, but seduced by different visions. Without exception, they shared a common fate: they all became the reluctant victims of a bloody war waged up and down the desert and beyond by a youthful warlord who dreamed dreams that rivalled those of Genghis Khan... ABOUT THE AUTHOR Brian McCredie is Scottish and was educated in the UK, Germany, and the United States (Duke University and the University of Virginia). He was in publishing for several years and is the author of both textbooks and articles ranging from Business English to the playwright Henrik Ibsen, respectively. He has travelled extensively through Asia and the Indian subcontinent, where his great-grandfather worked for three decades. His particular interests include Zen Buddhism as well as colonial and military history.