Quest for Kim : In Search of Kipling's Great Game by Peter Hopkirk (John Murray)

Quest for Kim is author Peter Hopkirk’s attempt to follow in the footsteps of Kim from Rudyard Kipling’s novel of the same name. However, it is not a travelogue but more of a literary detective novel. The days of the Raj’s India are long past so Hopkirk’s journey takes him through the countries of Pakistan and India. He couldn’t have chosen a worse time to partake in this endeavor as the two countries were on the brink of war. 

Hopkirk does his best to leave the politics aside and focuses on his own journey. He wants to see how much of Kim’s India still remains. The trail has him starting from Lahore, Pakistan. He will continue on to Simla, Umballa, Delhi, and travel along the Grand Trunk Road. Hopkirk also sets out to show that the characters in Kim were based on or inspired by real people. 

You do not have to read Kim in order to enjoy this book as Hopkirk provides the necessary passages related to his quest. He admits that there are parts of the story that he would not be able to do justice to and advises the reader that it would be best to read the actions in Kipling’s own words. 

Hopkirk’s first order of business is to determine and argue if Kim was based on a true person and who that might have been. Hopkirk suggests that Kipling would also have been familiar with the story of two likely candidates. The first being a man named Durie who was the son of a British soldier and an Indian woman who traveled through Afghanistan “dressed as a Muslim”. 

The other likely person is a man named Tom Doolan, the son of an Irish sergeant and a Tibetan woman. The story goes that the Irishman deserted his post and ran away with the woman to Tibet, never to be heard from again. Then, years later, a young boy is seen in a market in Darjeeling with “fair hair and blue eyes, but who spoke no English”. “Around his neck, however, was hung an amulet-case containing papers which showed him to be the son of the missing soldier.”  This is the exact same way the chaplain of Kim’s father’s regiment discovers the identity of Kim.

Quest for Kim is a fascinating journey as we follow Hopkirk trace Kim’s journey and gives us the truth behind the real people the characters in the novel are based on. In his research, Hopkirk finds there really was an Afghan horse dealer who he surmises was the model for Mahbug Ali. Hopkirk makes a convincing argument that Colonel Craighton was based on the actions of Thomas Montgomerie who trained locals to “gather topographical and other intelligence in areas where it was far too dangerous for Europeans to travel.” 

This book is definitely not your ordinary travel journal. It is a tribute to Rudyard Kipling’s novel, Kim, whom Hopkirk says first introduced him to the “Great Game” and became obsessed with the story. Once you read this, you may be inclined to read Kipling’s masterpiece or return to it if you have read it before. Perhaps it will inspire you to make your own literary journey of one of your favorite novels. ~Ernie Hoyt