The Road Past Mandalay

This book appealed to me as a fascinating piece of history, & great , true life adventure tale. Speaking as a former student & teacher, I found American schools turn students OFF to history. In contrast, I have found John Masters turns people ON. I first became acquainted with John Masters via his three historical novels, set in India during British rule. Enthralled with the first one to come my way --- [ "The Deceivers" - based on the the very real problem the British had rooting out the "Thugs". Yeah, folks, Indiana Jones & "The Temple of Doom" was based upon "Gunga Din" --- & both were based upon these very real cultic robbers & assassins. ---SCARED ME SILLY !!! ] --- I found it difficult to find the other two novels. [Thanks to Amazon & perseverance, I finally did. ] Then came the author's partial autobiography -- "Bugles & a Tiger" -- describing his life as a young British officer in India, choosing to lead Gurkha infantry. It was only recently that I came upon the continuation of his story --- namely his service in the Middle East & Burma during WW!! It was having read these four books that caused me to snatch up this final one, as soon as I came across it on Amazon. It came to me from the UK. I find it is not as well written as his other books. [ Which I rate EXCELLENT!] Yet, it intrigues me, filling in a piece of the great void of history left by our grossly inadequate educational system. Our current involvement in places such as Iraq, Iran, & Afghanistan are very much repetitions of the British experiences -- i.e.: history repeating itself. Masters' writings really bring home the fact that what is happening now is grounded upon what has gone before. Or, as King Solomon put it, "There is nothing new under the sun." I highly recommend not just this one book, but all five by this author. They are NOT exclusively for history bluffs --- NOT just for folks who are trying to figure out what is happening in our world today. They are great, gut gripping, classic tales based upon a reality most Americans know little or nothing about. Lastly, Thank You Amazon ! Were it not for you, I would never have found these books.

My wife and I planned a southeast Asia trip for this fall and I couldn't see passing on the opportunity to see Mandalay, and thankfully she's on board with that, because I have been linked sentimentally with the city since I first read this book more than 30 years ago. Masters is maybe my best friend that I never met... I feel like I've known him all my life after reading this and "Bugles", the prequel to this book. Someone else called this "one of the finest memoirs ever written". I was taken aback by that at first (it really is a bold statement), but after re-reading this I just can't argue with it. It is an amazing experience- a movie playing out in words on paper. If you are reading this then you or someone you like must be interested, so I urge you to just buy it. Get an older copy with a very good or better dustjacket because it will occupy a prominent spot on your bookshelf after you read it. Cheers.

Ordered this after reading Masters' first memoir, "Bugles and a Tiger". Both are wonderful, beautifully written accounts of a very strange time in history. This volume addresses some of the horrors of combat in Burma in WWII. Those parts are very grim and sad, reminiscent E. B. Sledge's account of combat on Okinawa in "With the Old Breed" but seen from farther up the chain of command. This is one of the great WWII memoirs. Both are indispensable. I might give them 4.5 stars due to an occasional effusion of schmaltz, but if it's got to be an integer, I'll round up.

A fascinating look at the twilight of the British empire and the price that was paid to stand true to the profession of those few good men that dedicated their lives and their souls to turn back the evil of another "would-be" empire.

Excellent item expertly packed, speedily delivery. Thank you!

This is a captivating and superbly written World War II chronicle that tells a remarkable story of how well trained soldiers from countries/cultures throughout the British Empire learned to work together as a tight knit team and fought under extreme conditions to defeat a ruthless enemy. One dimension of this book is about the intricacies and nature of leadership and how one leads to motivate individuals and organizations to do the impossible and win. These same skills can be applied to today's war time challenges and corporate global competitiion.

I first read Masters' "The Lotus and the Wind" fifty years ago, and subsequently read all the "Savage family" books. I selected "Bhowani Junction" for my Book Club last year, and while checking to see whether it was still in print, found Amazon's author page. So then I read "Bugles and a Tiger", volume one of Masters' autobiography, which was fascinating. This is the second volume, and is beautifully written and gripping. It covers his wartime service in Burma. If you've read "A Town Like Alice", "The Purple Plain", or "Defeat into Victory", or if you want to know something about the history of Myanmar, this will interest you.

A good personal view of the last war fought by the old empire. John Masters obviously loved his trade and the men he shared it with. I was very impressed by his willingness to express his emotions to the reader if not his fellow soldiers, probably wise on his part. A rare glimpse into a bygone era.

One of my all time favourite biographies. Provides enormous insight to the Second World War, particularly in Myanmar.

John Master's as usual is fantastic. Fantastic book.

I have found it to be an interesting, informative, and something of a page-turner of a book. It is the biography of a British Indian Army officer from the start of World War II to its end in 1945, and I think that it is well written. John Masters is first posted with the Gurkhas to the Middle East as a more junior officer, followed by Staff College in India, and then to Burma as a Chindit with a high rank, getting as far as commanding a brigade, followed in the end by a period as in effect number two of the division that took Mandalay towards the end of World War II. It is difficult to know how useful this book is. It is a War Memoir, and for people with an interest in what happened in particular in Burma it'll be informative. In essence, John Masters thinks that the concept of having Chindits was sound, but that the concept was not carried out well in practice, firstly, because politics entered into its creation, and, secondly, because Generel Stilwell simply got it wrong on the ground. The little that I have read about the war in Burma confirms the view given by John Masters that General Slim was excellent, but that General "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell was rubbish. There is an interesting sub-plot in that John Masters falls in love with a married woman called Barbara who already has two children. They have a baby, Barbara then gets a divorce, and then John Masters and Barbara get married. British culture of the day, particularly in India, frowned upon that sort of thing. In fact, it could wreck a promising military career. There were plenty of very pretty single women he could have fallen in love with and married. It isn't at all obvious to me why none of the single women would do. There is a significant amount of discussion of religion in this book, or at least it crops up a lot. Page 266 is the key to what John Masters thinks. "The hand of God? Causing death and mutilation, taking sides in violence? Not the Christian God, surely. Let each man believe what he wished." The senior padre thought otherwise. To him the hand of God had been with them. The independence movement is mentioned. It is clear that by the time of World War II it did intrude on the military. The Indian National Army is referred to as the Indian Traitor Army by John Masters. There is also the deliberate killing of severely wounded men so that they don't fall into the hands of the Japanese. The book would have been of real use to soldiers if John Masters had given a clear indication of what he felt at actually killing people and / or ordering that people be killed in the many different circumstances that it happened. He never really wavers from the line that war is terrible and terrible things are done that have to be done. For myself, there is much that is troubling. Much as I would like to be able to agree with John Masters a married woman with two small children is not an obvious yes, it is perfectly OK. There are two sides to every story. On the religious front I get the impression that John Masters hasn't really thought it through. He'd like it all to be Heaven on Earth, but it can't be all Heaven on Earth. Bad things can and will happen to people down here. At the same time, all credit to John Masters in that he does mention religion ... and politics. A very anodyne war memoir it would have been if he hadn't given us the benefit of his religious and political views. A book worth reading by historians, (and by relatives of the people mentioned in the book), but I suspect that soldiers in general looking for advice / guidance / real words of wisdom aren't going to find it here. I'm feeling generous, so it is five stars, but although it is a lot better than just an OK, it is not quite in the excellent category, and, therefore, arguably, four stars. Maybe it is four and half stars.

This is an excellent book. It has great insight into the ""Forgotten Army' and Wingate. Excellent companion to the first volume.Highly recommended.

Extraordinary man, extraordinary writer. I've never read anyone who conveys so well what it is like to be a commander in war, to need constantly to make decisions, to make complex plans to react to the unexpected and to disaster and always to suppress doubts which you must have, show no fear, and keep even your compassion in check. A man who loved the profession of soldering and at the same time hated its results. One of those writers who can recall all the sights, colours, smells and sounds of a place and a time with hallucinatory clarity, years later. And not least a man recognised the one true thing when it came to him and never let go of it. A fine book, which I'm so glad to have come across.