Forbidden Journey

Ella Maillart and the English journalist Peter Fleming undertake an astounding trek through some of the least known parts of the globe: From the Koko Nor to Central Asia, via the Tsaidam plateau, the Takla Makan desert, the Tarim basin, and from Kashgar across the Karakoram into Hunza. When they leave Peking, Japan is trying to crush a China devastated by civil war. With Peter Fleming, she maps out an unauthorized itinerary that no westerner seems to have followed since. The book is an account of seven risky months spent in solitary, windswept places where great civilisations once rubbed shoulders, visible to those who know how to decipher bleached bones and ancient ruins. Never again will the western provinces of China be seen in that way. The book was published in 1937 and has since been frequently reprinted, re-read and admired for the courage and talent of its author, for the accuracy of her observations and for her narrative gift.