The Great Hedge of India by Roy. Moxham - March 12, 2002: The Search for the Living Barrier that Divided a People

Condition: clean copy.
Content: At once a travel book and historical detective story, the book begins in a secondhand bookshop on London's Charing Cross Road. There the author buys the memoir of a 19th century British colonial administrative officer, who makes a passing reference to a giant hedge planted by the British across the Indian subcontinent. That hedge - which for fifty years had been manned and cared for by 12,000 men and had run a length of 2,500 miles - becomes the author's 'ridiculous obsession' and prompts the journey that takes him deep into the interior of India. In his efforts to confirm the existence of the extraordinary, impenetrable gree wall that had virtually disappeared from two nations' memories, not only does the author discover the inglorious role the hedge played within the huge commercial venture of the exploitative Raj, but he also uncovers what remains of this singular monument to one of the grand follies and great injustices of Victorian imperialism.
234 pages, glossary, select bibliography, index,