The Journey to Mount Kailash

The Journey to Mount Kailash by Robert Leach (Paperback) (ISBN: 9781907401220)

"I just loved it... it's whole, it's complete, it's brilliantly written... very accessible, very
warm, very vivid... The journey, the quest, is such a marvellous theme. We sink into south India, and it's so rich and sensuous. I loved the way it used colour and spices." Angela Bull, prize-winning children's author.

"Together with the author we are amazed, delighted, sometimes infuriated and bewildered by this encounter and with him we experience both a personal journey and the journey of India from colonial rule to contemporary politics. And the fabric which brings all this together is one seeped in colours, textures and flavours, one that appeals to our body, soul and mind." Olga Taxidou, Reader in English Literature, University of Edinburgh

"... a beautiful and compelling piece of writing" Tom Bryan, Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow, York University

This is a travelogue - a love story, poetry and song, myths, legends, history and politics. Mount Kailash is the Indian Olympus, where the gods dwell. Two people seek renewal, a new destiny, what Indian people call their dharma. They travel through India from Kerala in the far south towards the holy mountain of Kailash in the Himalayas, through the hills, cities, mangrove swamps and deserts of the subcontinent. They encounter people, festivals, myths and history as they learn about living and performing life. It's an epic journey, told in a virtuoso variety of poetic forms and styles, reflecting the vividness of Indian poetic traditions. As the pair travel, they gradually discover they are re-performing the ancient shadowy myths of Lord Shiva and the goddess Kali, and in a climactic scene in the erotically-carved temples of Khajuraho, their coupling seems to reawaken poetry itself. The journey draws to its end: the way becomes harder, the path steeper, the air thinner. Is their dharma simply the journey itself, or will its end reveal something more?

Robert Leach is a writer with a strong track record. He has written plays and full length books about theatre, including Theatre Workshop: Joan Littlewood and the Making of Modern British Theatre, which was shortlisted for Theatre Book of the Year in 2006. He has published two collections of poetry, Boy and Baggage and Sour Cream (both Dionysia Press, Edinburgh), as well as a number of poetry pamphlets. Robert is also a professional theatre practitioner, having acted in USA and directed in Moscow. He has a Ph.D. from Cambridge University, and was Reader in Drama at Birmingham University and Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Edinburgh University. With his partner, Joy Parker, he created the art exhibition, A Ferrari Through India.