Peter Stuart Hopkirk (15 December 1930 – 22 August 2014) was a British
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
, author and historian who wrote six books about the
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
, Russia and
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
.
Biography
Peter Hopkirk was born in
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...
, the son of Frank Stuart, an Anglican priest, and Mary Hopkirk (' Perkins). The family hailed originally from Roxburghshire in the borders of Scotland. He grew up at
Danbury, Essex and was educated at the
Dragon School in
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
. From an early age he was interested in spy novels carrying around
John Buchan
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
As a ...
's ''Greenmantle'' and
Ruyard Kipling's ''Kim''. While at the Dragon School he played
rugby and shot at
Bisley.
During his
national service
National service is a system of compulsory or 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 ...
, he was commissioned in the
Royal Hampshire Regiment
The Hampshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, created as part of the Childers Reforms in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot and the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot. The re ...
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 (, ; 30 May 192816 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until Uganda–Tanzania War, his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a Military dictatorship, ...
.
Before becoming a full-time author, he was an
ITN
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
reporter and newscaster for two years, the New York City correspondent of
Lord Beaverbrook's ''
The Sunday Express'', and then, for nearly twenty years, with ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', five as its chief reporter, and later as a Middle East and
Far East
The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...
specialist. In the 1950s, he edited the
West African
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ma ...
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 – Russia, Central Asia, the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
, China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and eastern Turkey.
As a journalist, he sought a life in dangerous situations, 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. He was based in New York during the
Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961, covering the events for the ''
Daily Express
The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...
''.
Hopkirk was twice arrested and held in secret police cells. In Cuba, he was accused of spying for the US Government and his contacts in Mexico obtained his release. In the Middle East, he was hijacked by Arab terrorists in Beirut, which led to his expulsion. At the height of the economic oil crises in 1974,
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinians, Palestinian people in both the occupied Pale ...
(PLO) personnel hijacked his plane, a
KLM jet bound for Amsterdam. Hopkirk confronted the armed gang and persuaded them 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. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
(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
The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the ...
*''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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
*''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 in ''The Daily Telegraph'' nominated ''The Great Game'' for the Book of the Year.
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Said (1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American academic, literary critic, and political activist. As a professor of literature at Columbia University, he was among the founders of Postcolonialism, post-co ...
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
;
s
* by Hopkirk, Kathleen
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