Book Review, the Heartland by Stuart Legg

Yesterday I had a quiet day, concerned only with my washing (yes, I know, once again!)

I got down to the laundry room at 8.03 (it is open from 8.00) to discover two machines in use. The third machine which is positively ancient, was out of order. I was very lucky as one of my neighbours offered to put my washing in the big machine once she had finished hers. She even gave me a phone to let me know what time it had gone into the machine so that I would know when to go down to transfer it to the tumble drier.

Anyway what I really wanted to talk about is a book called The Heartland by Stuart Legg.

This book must have been recommended by one of the blog authors whom I read, but very sadly I cannot remember who.

The Heartland of the title is, roughly, Inner and Outer Mongolia. I followed up the recommendation as I hoped it would shed more light on the history which is the background for Conn Iggulden’s series about Genghis Khan

I found it quite a difficult book to read, not least because my knowledge of Europe, the Middle East and Asia is woefully lacking. I can – more or less – identify countries on a map, but not old tribal areas nor mountain ranges, nor rivers. Some of the latter I did know, but many more were new to me.

I could have done with reading this book in a lecture hall with physical maps of Europe, the Middle East and Asia in front and the borders of countries as they changed superimposed.

I found it quite difficult to follow the movements of the various tribes as they moved to and fro and battles were fought.

At least I knew of the names of most of the tribes, but not all (the Alan, anyone?) and certainly the tribes of Asia were difficult.

The book really came to life, at least for me, when we had well passed the half way mark and at last Genghis Khan (or Chingis) and in fact his father moved into centre stage. It may be that there was more information about this time and place as writings were published not long after Ghengis’s death.

At that point I found the whole thing absolutely fascinating as this was history, not historical fiction.

Not that I would decry historical fiction; if well researched it can bring to life a time in our past.