From Calcutta to the snows of the Himalayas, Patrick Frenchs Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer pieces together the story of a man who embodies all the romance and folly of Britains lost imperial dream. Soldier, explorer, mystic, guru and spy, Francis Younghusband began his colonial career as a military adventurer and became a radical visionary who preached From Calcutta to the snows of the Himalayas, Patrick Frenchs Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer pieces together the story of a man who embodies all the romance and folly of Britains lost imperial dream. Soldier, explorer, mystic, guru and spy, Francis Younghusband began his colonial career as a military adventurer and became a radical visionary who preached free love to his followers. Patrick Frenchs award-winning biography traces the unpredictable life of the maverick with the damned rum name, who singlehandedly led the 1904 British invasion of Tibet, discovered a new route from China to India, organized the first expeditions up Mount Everest and attempted to start a new world religion. A story full of excitement and insight, humour and curiosity Michael Holroyd Breathtakingly accomplished Observer Beautifully written, wise, balanced, fair, funny and above all extremely original William Dalrymple Dazzling Niall Ferguson I found myself reading through the night. This is a rare gem of a book, one which so perfectly combines author and subject that it must set new standards for the future of historical biography Independent on Sunday Patrick French is the author of Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer , which won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Royal Society of Literature W. H. Heinemann Prize, Liberty or Death: Indias Journey to Independence and Division , which won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Tibet, Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land , The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul , which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize and won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Hawthornden Prize, and India: A Portrait .