SOAS’ incognito academic inspires world’s most famous fictional archaeologist
Remembering a diplomatic spat caused by Japanese lecturer William McGovern In 2015, few places in our world are inaccessible to the daring field academic or discerning traveller. Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet in the Himalayas, is one of the world’s highest and remotest cities; yet, if you charter a plane from London, it can be reached in approximately 17 hours. The story in the early 1920s, however, was very different.