'Were he to jump on a camel for his second volume in the great traveller's footsteps ... he would surely be the Burton of his day' -- Praise for previous works The Spectator 'Mackintosh-Smith has all the assets a travel writer needs: erudition without pretension; rather subversive good humour without relentless jokiness; and a descriptive eye capable of sketching complex detail in a few telling lines of ink' -- Praise for previous work, The Daily Telegraph 'As a writer and traveller Tim Mackintosh-Smith has two great gifts: he slips effortlessly between the past and the present, and he takes us with him. This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' -- Charles Allen 'Part travel book, part biography, part detective story, this is a gripping read and a fitting testament to the Prince of Travellers.' -- Wanderlust 20050301 'Tim's aim is to sift tangible history from magical reality ...and he proves the sceptics wrong: India is the Jewel in the Prince of Travellers' turban.' -- The Nehru Centre 20050301 'A curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes' -- Guardian Weekly 20050513 'This is engrossing writing to transport even the most languid armchair traveller.' -- Daily Express 20050513 'A thoroughly engaging read ... Smith writes articulately and with good humour ... very rewarding' -- Adventure Travel magazine 20050801 'Mackintosh-Smith seems to tread a pleasing path between using Ibn-Battutah's work as his personal guide book and taking in his surroundings as they come. The best thing about this book is how the past and the present are mingled' -- Global magazine 20050501 'Another triumph, travel writing of the very highest order and the perfect ripsote to any publisher or agent who has been predicting the demise of the genre.' -- The Spectator 20050514 'The author's research has been thorough, but his tone is often enjoyably light ... The Hall of a Thousand Columns" has achieved what its author intended' -- Times Literary Supplement 20050902 'A very beguiling mix of modern-day travelogue and a history of Magul India' -- Sue Baker, Publishing News 20051125 'A gripping read and a fitting testament to the Prince of Travellers' -- Wanderlust 20050301 'This is his first venture into India but he comes upon the scene like a breath of fresh air.' -- Charles Allen 20041027 'A deft use of language, anecdote, scholarship and a daunting appreciation for all that is wonderful and absurd in the world. Esoteric, raunchy, hilarious, erudite and transporting, The Hall of a Thousand Columns is a marvellous traveller's tale like no other. I sense that Ibn Battutah has finally met his match.' -- Eric Hansen 20041208 'Tim Mackintosh-Smith has recreated, with enviable intimacy and elegance, the extraordinary life and times of the greatest traveller of pre-modern times.' -- Pankaj Mishra, author of The Romantics and 20041101 'Beneath this funny, cultured, humane and highly idiosyncratic travelogue there is a darkly tragic theme: interwoven with the real-time journey through India is an enquiry into the nature of Islam in India.' -- Barnaby Rogerson, Literary Review 20050301 'A first-rate travel book, enlivened by the author's erudition, subtle sense of humour, and sheer enthusiasm for his subject.' -- Traveller 20050301 'You really must read...: Rich and fascinating.' -- Sunday Times 20050327 'A book that travels in time as well as in space' -- Daily Mail 20050408 'Few writers have the talent to pull off a notable trilogy in any genre ... Mackintosh-Smith's is not in doubt.' -- Sunday Times 20050320 'With his hallmark combination of irreverence and empathy, Mackintosh-Smith ! has confected a curiously addictive blend of history, travel and jokes. But above all, he engages with ideas, and his aim is that of the novelist -- to send a bucket down into the subconscious.' -- Guardian 20050416 'One of the most enjoyable things about Mackintosh-Smith's narrative is the way it intersperses dizzying glimpses of 14th-century Islamic court life with his own comic attempts to navigate modern-day India.' -- Daily Mail 20050408 'We are also offered an engaging portrait of modern-day India -- the charm, humour and quirkiness and the way in which the country constantly juxtaposes the extraordinary with the mundane.' -- Nick Creagh-Osborne, Guardian 20050611 'Mixing Ibn Battutah's account with his own encounters and journeys, Mackintosh-Smith creates an enchanting text.' -- Ziauddin Sardar, Independent 20050621