I am rather partial to picking up the odd history book and Alexandria appealed to me when I read the synopsis. That first paragraph referring to a man who, I initially thought was a bit of a rogue, has quite a remarkable life.

Charles Masson decided that he didn't want to be in the East India Company, years of bad pay, awful work and no chance of raising his position basically up and walks out. Unbeknownst to him, this would be the start of a very remarkable life.

The author has got a wonderful way of approaching the story of Masson and has made it very addictive. The story charts what is known of Masson, the people he met, the politics of the time as well as the East India Company. There are loads of references and these have been listed at the end of the book so it makes it much easier reading.

I have to say that the author changed my opinion of Masson, originally I thought him a bit of a rogue, this then changed to him being a man obsessed with finding Alexandria beneath the mountains. To finally feeling quite sorry for him.

His quest to find one of the cities called Alexandria becomes all-consuming. He travels, talks to people, spends all his money and on occasion risks his life. He is robbed beaten, imprisoned, starved and on the brink of death but still, his pursuit continued.

Yes, this is a non-fiction book, and yet it felt like a really fascinating action and adventure read. This is very much down to the skill of the author as he has created such a readable historical account. I adored reading this and it has also led me to a little of my own further reading about Masson and Alexander.

One for history fans, such an informative book that was great reading. One I would definitely recommend.

Dd Masson find one of the 17 Alexandrias claimed to have been founded by Alexander the Great? Richardson's deeply researched book hints that he might have got close but, with so many of his notes and collected finds being pillaged or lost, there is regrettably no real proof. But what Masson did achieve by travelling solo into deepest Afghanistan certainly justifies being written about. His luck was appalling leading to him suffering all sorts of deprivation. His treatment by The East India Company was, quite frankly, despicable yet his dedication kept him searching for 20 years. He died in 1853 without enjoying any real recognition for either his discoveries or his writings. A true Victorian adventurer on whom Richardson has projected some belated light.

This is an amazing and yet tragic adventure story. Built solidly on extensive literature, it tells the story of one man and his quest for understanding and a passion that upheld him through a life fraught with danger and surrounded by ignorance and cruelty. With an array of characters, each with a story to tell coloured by their individual bias, it can at times be a confusing read. It is largely anecdotal and so often jumps from scene to scene as well as perspective to perspective, but it always returns to the central character and his experiences are such that it holds the reader and drives the story on. It is not a happy tale, but he was clearly courageous to face as much as he did and it is surprising that rancour took so long to appear and based on the information provided was justifiable. The quest for understanding at the heart of the story is told again and again with different motives and outcomes. What is clear, from an historical perspective, is the damage caused by greed and bureaucracy.

Well worth a read. Highly recommended

Riveting True Adventure

Deserter Charles Masson learns of the lost city of Alexandria Beneath the Mountains and embarks on a quest across nineteenth-century India and Afghanistan in search of treasure, archaeology and derring-do.

Alexandria is an extraordinary tale worthy of Rudyard Kipling or H Rider Haggard. At its heart is a mystery as much about Masson the master of disguise, as about Alexander the Great’s lost city. This non-fiction is peopled by braggarts, warlords, thieves, kings, confidence-tricksters, spies and holy men.

Richardson proves himself a masterful storyteller and researcher of the history, land and cultures on which the incredible character of Masson left his mark. The author enriches the narrative with journal extracts and local proverbs. His love of the subject shines through every paragraph, and fully captivates the reader.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC.

A fascinating, rip-roaring page-turner from start to finish.

If, like me, you were or are fascinated by the Great Game then this is definitely worth reading. It sits very happily beside Kim, Peter Hopkirk's books, Frank Burnaby and the many others of men's adventures in amongst the Himalayas in the 18th and 19th centuries.I was pretty certain I knew the name Charles Masson so when I started reading this I had no idea of his real identity. James Lewis, private of the East India Company simply couldn't bear being a soldier any longer so he walked out his barracks and became an outlaw. So he changed his name and followed his dream of trying to find one of Alexander's great cities. Poor and friendless for many years he travelled and scrabbled until he arrived at the great plain of Bagram - and that was his discovery at last. Through obsessive perseverance he uncovered such wonderful artefacts such as the Bimaran golden casket with its image of Buddha - the first known in the world. Charles Masson as James Lewis found fame and renown through his finds but he died penniless and forgotten overtaken by the political intriguing of the times of the Great Game as well as the theft of his papers. A beautifully written book and completely fascinating, the research must have taken years and I will read this over again because I loved it.

I found it better to read this book in small bits, to really soak up the flavour. There is a huge sense of fun, of humour, entwined with the story of James Lewis, a deserter who was determined to find his Holy Grail, Alexandria. Renaming himself Charles Masson, he has the most incredible journeys, lands in apparently impossible situations and somehow comes through smiling.
Thanks to NetGalley for an amazing book to read and review. I waant to research Masson's life for myslef now.

Just finished this book, and wow!

Alexandria is an incredibly well-researched and detailed account of the attempts of one man in unraveling of one of the ancient mysteries - the whereabouts of the lost city founded by Alexander the Great. There are thought to be at least 22 of these cities, all named Alexandria, but this is the story of how a very unlikely man discovered one of these cities in 19th century Afganistan. After years of travelling, storytelling, and assuming a very varied number of occupations (including esponiage!), Charles Masson, begins to unravel the mystery where many have failed.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the frequent use of quotes from the writings and memoirs of the people this book followed. It really made their experiences and personalities become far more vibrant in my mind. I also found this book to be unique in the way it was written - it really was woven together like a story! I would suggest this book to someone who is wanting to try non-fiction books based on events or people in history, but is intimidated by the more formal detail-heavy writing. The storytelling style of the author really drew me in and made it easier to take in more information. I have to admit that for the first third of the book I thought it was historical fiction novel with strange excerpts from "character" diaries, and the reason I thought this for so long was largely the excellent storytelling!

Throughout the book there was a lot of information on the events, especially political and army-related, going on around Masson, even when he himself appeared to be only tangentially involved. I can appreciate why however, and it did shape the world-view well.

Some elements were educated guesses too, but it really helped to make the story come alive!

*Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book reads like a labour of love by Richardson - it's not the most sophisticated or elegant of narratives ('Harlan talked Masson's ear off about Alexander') but it compensates with a pacy tale of adventure with a sort of Boy's Own air of innocent excitement.

Opening in the early nineteenth century when James Lewis leaves the East India Company army, adopts the new name of Charles Masson and falls in with an American con-man/adventurer (it's jaw dropping that Harlan bluffed his way into the role of an army surgeon, for example, and held it for some years!) with an obsession with Alexander the Great, one which soon infects Masson himself.

Romping around what is now India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Masson becomes an unlikely scholar and archeologist searching for one of Alexander's lost cities, one of a number of Alexandrias in the region.

For all the air of jolly japes, there is an especially sad ending as Masson's research and scholarly work gets hijacked by an establishment figure and Masson himself is rejected by the British Museum.

Much of the material comes from Masson's own journals so we get a sense of the man in his own words. It's always fascinating to see how exploitative archaeology was as a discipline in its early years and the extent to which it was deeply implicated in the British colonial project as well as dependent upon the predations of the East India Company and Richardson makes these points with some firmness. All the same, for most of the book this has the air of a rip-roaring adventure.

A rip-roaring rambunctious adventure of James Lewis, British deserter who went on a near suicidal search for one of the cities named Alexandria.

The book recalls a world where you could bluff your way through cultures with a little local knowledge, and a blustery confidence; Charles Massoon (the name James adopts) has so many adventures the tales almost appear in half light; you intellectually squint at them, marvelling at whether they are really true. They could not be so easily these days.

It's rare to find a book that so unashamedly yomps from one exciting moment to another: the book Thuggee which was set in the same period in India comes close but becomes boring with repitition, Alexandria, as a page turner, does not.

An interesting look at the incredible life of an incredibly overlooked man. A broad look at the life of Masson, as well as information about his contemporaries and a look at the workings of the East India Company.
It would have been nice to have some illustrations, especially of Masson’s finds.

Charles Masson was unknown to me, until I read this book. This is a tale of social mobility and was extraordinary in this day and time period, when he found treasure, ie the golden casket, got a rich man to finance his excavations and lived a life undreamed of by the working class child he once was, with many hardships, that would have been the undoing of a less intelligent and determined man. He quickly learned to tell stories, and what is more he was believed. A rip roaring tale, that takes place mainly in India and Afghanistan.

This surprisingly delightful book provides sideways take on the Great Game, as played out in Afghanistan in the 1830s. Such early Anglo-Afghan encounters have long been a source of fascination - they are central to the first Flashman novel from as far back as 1968. Fans of Ben MacIntyre’s Josiah the Great will recognise many of the characters and the events. From long over-looked archival sources Richardson assembles the story of the archaeologist and unwilling spy, ‘Charles Masson’ (a pseudonym that James Lewis adopted when he deserted from the East India Company army).

There are a few notices of Masson in John Keay’s India Discovered, and it seems that the British Museum is beginning to reassemble Masson’s finds and appreciate his scholarly contribution. Richardson has done a lot of archival research to assemble this story, but he keeps all that for the footnotes; in the text he writes like a (good) novelist, enjoying his creative powers, and the book deserves to become a popular success.

In many ways reads like a picaresque novel with the hapless Masson lurching from the frying pan to the fire (and back), all the while driven by his sheer love of Afghanistan and its past. He is trying to discover and make sense of lost civilizations, as a war begins to rage around him. Like Flashman Masson is not pleased to be in the thick of the military action; like Josiah Harlan he is a man driven by a passion that gets him into trouble. Great stuff!