The Return of Colonel Cross of the Gurkhas
The Call of Nepal: My Life In the Himalayan Homeland of Britain’s Gurkha Soldiers
Nimble Books, a publisher I am proud to be associated with, is rolling out the American edition of the memoirs of the legendary COIN specialist, soldier and linguist, Colonel John Philip Cross, of the Gurkhas. Foreword by Robert D. Kaplan. Disclosure – I had a part, albeit a small one, along with Lexington Green, in connecting Col. Cross with Nimble Books, and I could not be more pleased to see this memoir in print. Not many books these days start by announcing how modern academics will hate it.
Cross was the focus of a story by Kaplan in The Atlantic Monthly magazine in 2006.
Review soon to come….
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
I am waiting on a review copy from Fred. I’ve been looking forward to this book.
September 22nd, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Mine arrived yesterday. Lex received his a few days before that – I think ithe copies are working their way westward 😉
September 22nd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I have mine within arms reach. I will be reading it very soon. I have read three of Col. Cross’s books and I expect this one to be as good as the others.
September 25th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I bought the book and was disappointed. It was well written but short on insights into COIN. Gross apparently "went native" and tells it in a good story, but not my cup of tea.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Have you seen his interview in 1991 now on YouTube? As Steven Pressfield and Jim Gant develop the idea of cultural embedding don’t you think that Cross offers a model?
Rob
October 12th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Cross Interview part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnyJfM5_Nbw&feature=channel
October 13th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Much obliged Rob! I had no idea Cross was on Youtube. For an elderly, once blind, colonel living up in the Himalayan foothills, the man gets around.