John Masters

Lieutenant Colonel John Masters, DSO (1914–1983) was an officer in the Indian Army from 1934, with the 2nd Battalion 4th Gurkha Rifles from 1935, and novelist.

His autobiography Bugles and a Tiger; a Volume of Autobiography was published in 1956 and has since been republished under slightly different titles as Bugles and a Tiger, Bugles and a Tiger : a Personal Adventure and Bugles and a Tiger: My Life in the Gurkhas. It covers the Waziristan Campaign 1936-39. The second volume of his autobiography Road Past Mandalay deals mostly with the Burma campaign in the Second World War. Both volumes are available online, refer below.

His 1954 novel Bhowani Junction, set in the period of Britain's exodus and the Partition of India, was made into a successful film, starring Ava Gardner. The geographic location of fictional Bhowani Junction was most likely Jhansi, but the film was shot in Lahore.

External links

• John Masters Wikipedia
• Bhowani Junction Wikipedia
• Ava Gardner in Lahore for 'Bhowani Junction' 22 June 2010 All Things Pakistan, now an archived website.
• Bhowani Junction – a brief but memorable encounter with Hollywood by Hamid Hussain April 12, 2013 forpakistan.org, now an archived webpage.
• Listen to a 1978 interview with John Masters (1914-1983), including transcripts .s-asian.cam.ac.uk

Online books

Autobiography

• Bugles And A Tiger(1956) Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Another DLI file, possibly 1965, Archive.org mirror version. Also available in the Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library. Only one person at a time is able to borrow, so you may need to wait for the book to be returned, First you must sign up with the Open Library. Waziristan in the late 1930s with the Indian Army.
• The Road Past Mandalay 1979. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library. Earlier title: The Road past Mandalay : a personal narrative. First published 1961. 2nd volume of Autobiography. The short first part takes Masters and the 2/4th Ghurkas to Iraq and Syria. After a staff course back in India, the balance of the book concerns his time in Burma, with a Chindit Column.
• Pilgrim Son 1971. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Full title: Pilgrim Son : a Personal Odyssey. Archive.org mirror version. 3rd volume of Autobiography. Masters' life as a writer.

Novels with an Indian background

Listed according to the period in which the novels are set.

• Coromandell 1955. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library. A 17th-century English lad runs away to sea and ends up in India.
• The Deceivers Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org mirror version. An English officer goes undercover to root out the ritual murders of Thuggee.
• Nightrunners Of Bengal 1951. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library version 1966.
• The Lotus And The Wind Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org mirror version. The Great Game of British and Russian agents on the Northwest Frontier.
• The Ravi Lancers 1972. Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library. An Indian cavalry regiment is sent to the France at the outbreak of the First World War.
• Bhowani Junction 1954. Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org mirror version. Also available in the Internet Archive (Archive.org) Lending Library. Britain's exodus and the Partition of India.
• To The Coral Strand Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org mirror version. An ex-officer refuses to go gracefully after Indian independence.

Other novels

• Fandango Rock 1959 Pdf download, Digital Library of India. Archive.org mirror version. Set in Spain.