Teltscher, Kate

PERSONAL:

Education: University of York, B.A. (with honors); University of Oxford, D.Phil.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Roehampton University, Erasmus House, Roehampton Ln., London SW15 5PU, England.

CAREER:

Roehampton University, London, England, reader in English literature. Has also taught at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Nominated for James Tait Black Memorial Prize, 2007.

WRITINGS:

India Inscribed: European and British Writing on India, 1600-1800, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama, and the First British Expedition to Tibet, Farrar, Straus & Giroux (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including The Lama and the Scotsman: George Bogle in Bhutan and Tibet, 1774-1775, edited by Kathleen Wilson, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 2002; and India/Calcutta: City of Palaces and Dreadful Night, edited by Peter Hulme and Tim Youngs, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 2002. Contributor to documentaries for BBC Radio.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kate Teltscher's book The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama, and the First British Expedition to Tibet relates the story of George Bogle, a Scotsman who, in 1774, was sent to Tibet to negotiate trade routes from Bengal. The routes would have opened a new way to access the Chinese market. Bogle took many notes on his trip, leaving a record that proves him to have been a keen observer with good insight into other cultures, as well as his own. Bogle described his journey across Bengal and a subsequent trip to Beijing with the Panchen Lama. His favorable observations on the nature of Tibetan life led to its image as something of a paradise, a perception which persists today. His book is "a gripping narrative and wonderfully entertaining reading," commented a Kirkus Reviews writer. Hilary Spurling of the Guardian Unlimited found The High Road to China to be a "strange and fascinating book." Reviewing the book for the Asia Times, Fraser Newham observed: "As a literature specialist, Teltscher is at her best showing how Bogle's writing reflected the intellectual currents of his age—and how it influenced later generations."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2006, review of The High Road to China: George Bogle, the Panchen Lama, and the First British Expedition to Tibet, p. 1262.

Publishers Weekly, December 18, 2006, review of The High Road to China, p. 55.

ONLINE

Asia Times,http://www.atimes.com/ (August 28, 2007), review of The High Road to China.

Guardian Unlimited,http://observer.guardian.co.uk/ (August 20, 2006), Hilary Spurling, review of The High Road to China.

Roehampton University Web site,http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/ (July 3, 2007), biography of Kate Teltscher, and "Kate Teltscher Nominated for Britain's Oldest Literary Awards."

Thumbnail Book Reviews,http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~jmcd/book/ (August 28, 2007), John Q. McDonald, review of The High Road to China.