Lurgan Sahib

With time on my hands I have whizzed through the last few chapters of Peter Hopkirk's "In Search of Kim" , which is , by the, way a fascinating read. Much googling has gone on of people, places and events, the inevitable stirring of curiosity and further reading which seems to be unavoidable with any Hopkirk title.

I was rather gobsmacked when I turned up a piece in The Guardian of December 31st 2005 which speaks of the supposed revelation that Kipling's Lurgan Sahib was based on Simla jeweller, mystic and one time secret agent Mr. A. M. Jacob. This revelation was picked up on blogs in different far flung corners of the web, in seeming oblivion to the fact that Peter Hopkirk enters in detail into this relationship between Jacob and Lurgan Sahib.

In his 1996 book he draws on numerous sources including Brigadier Alec Mason writing in the 1961 "Readers Guide to the Works of Rudyard Kipling".

I think I will reinvent the wheel tomorrow, someone is bound to be impressed.