Forbidden Road: Kabul to Samarkand

Afghanistan had been invaded many times. Alexander the Great had marched his Greeks through her mountains. Genghis Khan and his hordes had cantered through her streets. More recently the mighty British Raj had flown warplanes over the isolated hermit kingdom. Yet none of these military men ever disarmed the Afghans as effortlessly as Rosita Forbes.

She started in Peshawar, that charming, mostly lawless city that sits like a pigeon's egg at the base of the nearby Khyber Pass. Forbes of course had to venture into the city's old bazaars, investigating rumours of 'the secrets of Peshawar that all men know'. In 1935 the intrepid traveller hired a driver and car, threw her bags in the back, pulled on her gloves, set her stylish hat firmly in place, and set off for Kabul, Mazar-I-Sharif, and ultimately faraway Samarkand.

This was one of the most delightful journeys of the adventure-filled 1930s, for nothing escaped Forbes' observant eye. She spoke to nomads, dined with royalty, and uncovered enough stories to fill two books.

This delightful book is still fresh, still charming, just like its beautiful adventuress of an author.