Harper Press
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Previously published in paperback by Flamingo 1998
Reprinted eleven times
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1997
Copyright © William Hamilton-Dalrymple 1997
The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780006547747
Ebook Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780007381326 Version: 2017-01-04
From the reviews of From the Holy Mountain:
âFrom the Holy Mountain is a further landmark in a writing career unblemished by failure and enlightened by an erudition worn as lightly as a cloak. Dalrympleâs lucidity and learning are woven into a writing style which is never pompous or smug ⦠This is a brave book, intellectually, spiritually and physically. In a missive which brims with intelligence and a voracious appetite for knowledge, Dalrymple paints wonderful sketches of a twentieth-century landscape bedevilled by the conflicts of the past ⦠a book which provokes thought as often as it entertains and beguilesâ
HUGH MACDONALD, Glasgow Herald
âA delightful tale ⦠this book brings pleasure back to reading history and travelâ
CHARLES GLASS, Sunday Express
âWilliam Dalrymple has effortlessly assumed the mantle of Robert Byron and Patrick Leigh Fermor ⦠From the Holy Mountain is destined to be this yearâs big book ⦠an impressive achievementâ
LUCRETIA STEWART, Guardian Books of the Year
âIn his third book William Dalrymple has dug deep to present the case of the Middle Eastâs downtrodden Christians. More hard-hitting than either of his previous books, From the Holy Mountain is driven by indignation. While leavened with his characteristic jauntiness and humour, it is also profoundly shocking. Time and time again in the details of Dalrympleâs discoveries I found myself asking: why do we not know this? The sense of unsung tragedy accumulates throughout the chapters of this book ⦠From the Holy Mountain is the most rewarding sort of travel book, combining flashes of lightly-worn scholarship with a powerful sense of place and the immediacy of the best journalism. But more than that it is a passionate cri de coeur for a forgotten people which few readers will be able to resistâ
PHILIP MARSDEN, Spectator
âDalrymple brings the past alive wonderfully and is a brilliant communicator. If In Xanadu was reminiscent of early Evelyn Waugh or the devil-may-care Peter Fleming, From the Holy Mountain evokes Robert Byron and Bruce Chatwin. It is a more poetic and disturbing book and all the better for that. It marks the maturing of a very fine writerâ
ALEX FORSYTH, Scotland on Sunday
âWilliam Dalrymple has earned a rapid reputation as a brilliant young travel writer and From the Holy Mountain is a splendid, effective and impressive bookâ
J.D.F. JONES, Financial Times
âSince his magnificent In Xanadu, William Dalrymple has been generally acclaimed as one of our best contemporary travel writers. In From the Holy Mountain he travels the Silk Route of ancient Byzantium through the present-day Middle East tracing the AD 578 journey of John Moschos, the great Byzantine monk, traveller and oral historian avant la lettre. His aim is to uncover the human archaeology of Eastern Christianity. It is realised in meditative, sensuous proseâ
Independent on Sunday
âUtterly compelling: a meaty, intriguing volume and a worthy successor to In Xanadu and City of Djinnsâ
TOM FORT, Financial Times Books of the Year
âA huge, breathtaking book about a colossal journey. The writing is by turns learned and lyrical ⦠a magnificent achievementâ
Publishing News
âAny travel writer who is so good at his job as to be brilliant, applauded, loved and needed has to have an unusual list of qualities, and William Dalrymple has them all in aces. The most important is curiosity and the intrepidity it generates. Then there has to be the feeling that there never has been such a book as this, and never will be again. He must be enough of a scholar, and it helps if his jokes are really funny, and if he discovers something and goes to unexpected places. Dalrymple scores high on all these points. He knows more than Robert Byron, is less of a mythomane than Bruce Chatwin and not so dotty as Robert Fisk. He does not go slumming or patronise, but his ear for conversation â or can it be his talent for impersonation? â is as good as Alan Bennettâs. The book is a good, long read, like the works of Gibbon ⦠The best and most unexpected book I have read since I forget whenâ