Lost in Tibet
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From the book
Flying 'the Hump'
First Americans in Lhasa
British Mission in Lhasa
Chinese Mission in Lhasa
Tibetan independence
Chinese invasion
The Dalai Lama
Authors
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Richard Starks
Miriam Murcutt
Other books by authors
Along The River
that Flows Uphill
Lost in
Tibet
by Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt
Frequently Asked Questions
The following interview with the authors of Lost in Tibet is based on Frequently Asked Questions they have fielded on researching and writing their book, and on publishing.
Question: How did you first become interested in the story you tell in Lost in Tibet?
Richard Starks: Well, we were doing some background reading in preparation for a trip we planned to make to Tibet. In a couple of books, there were mentions of five American airmen who were stranded in Tibet in 1943. Not much was written about them - just a paragraph or two - but it was enough to get me interested, and when we investigated further, we quickly became hooked on their story.
Question: The two of you spent three years writing the book. Was it just because of the story?
Richard Starks: Absolutely. It's always about the story. There are many other elements in this book, but they all hang on the story.
Miriam Murcutt: On one level, it's a thrill-a-minute adventure story about five airmen who are forced to bail out of their plane just seconds before it crashes. They think they're going to land in a valley in India, but instead they slam into the side of a mountain that's right in the heart of Tibet. So the question is, how are they going to get out of there? How are they going to survive?
At the same time, they're forced to learn how to deal with the Tibetan people. You have to remember that at the time - this was in 1943 - only a handful of Westerners had ever been to Tibet, and the first Tibetans the airmen encountered - a whole village of them - had never seen any Westerners before. So along with the adventure, you have a parallel story of cultural conflict - two groups of people coming together, and each one having no understanding of how the other functions.
Richard Starks: The contrast could not have been greater. On one side, you have five American airmen who have literally dropped out of the sky. They represent the industrial world at a time when every major nation had geared its economy towards war. On the other side, you have the compassionate and inward-looking Tibetans, who were still living in a feudal society and who, more often than not, did not know that a world war was waging. So there were these two distinct elements of the story that initially attracted us - the high adventure and the cultural conflict.
Miriam Murcutt: But after we started digging deeper, we found that there was a third strand to the story, one we hadn't suspected was there. It was a political element, which revealed itself when we discovered that while the Americans were in Tibet, they were caught up in the political infighting that - even back then - was raging around Tibet's determination to be independent from China.
Richard Starks: That aspect gave the story a relevance to events that are happening today, because it tied the book into the Tibetan struggle for independence that is still very much alive. So this third element of the story wasn't just an unexpected bonus. It also became a key part of the book.
Question: A lot of time has passed since the airmen were in Lhasa. So how did you manage to research their story?
Miriam Murcutt: With lot of leg-work that helped us turn up some excellent sources. As an example, we found that the India Office of the British Library in London has extensive records covering Lhasa in the 1940s. We went through all those records and were able to find a number of invaluable references to the five airmen. We made several trips to London where we read reams of hand-written documents tied together with bits of pink ribbon.
Richard Starks: We also tracked down a lot of people we wanted to interview. That took some hard detective work, but it really paid off. We spoke to the families of all the airmen. They were incredibly helpful, giving us access to their personal papers, letters, telegrams and photos, as well as filling us in on the airmen's early lives, so we could flesh out their characters and find out more about the kind of people they were.
Miriam Murcutt: Then, too, on the trip we took to Tibet - first to Lhasa and then across the Tibetan plateau to Nepal - we were able to retrace much of the route the airmen took when they were trying to get back to their base in India. Of course, we had better weather - and much better transport - but that gave us a taste of what the airmen had been forced to endure.
Question: So was the book well received when it was first published?
Miriam Murcutt: Well, yes, it was - and that's been one of the most gratifying parts of the whole venture. We spent three years burrowing away on this book, and what happens is, you become totally focused on it, totally absorbed. But every now and then, you lift your head just enough to wonder, 'will anyone else find this as fascinating as we do?' So when the reviews started to come in, and the book went into its second and third printings, we were really thrilled.
Richard Starks: We knew from the start that we had a great story on our hands. So the challenge was to make sure we unearthed it and then told it well. As far as I'm concerned, that's the definition of a good book - a great story that's well told. So that's what we tried to produce.
Question: So you liked the reviews?
Miriam Murcutt: One review said it was "a gripping and detailed." A couple described it as "a 'must-read'". And Kirkus Reviews said it was "for fans of Into Thin Air", which I particularly liked. Those were the early reviews, and from there, they seemed to get better.
Richard Starks: We've also had a lot of readers emailing us to say how much they enjoyed the book. That's been gratifying, too, because they are, of course, the ones that matter. The readers and the writers - they are the principals. Everyone else is an intermediary.
Miriam Murcutt: We knew we were on the right track, even before the manuscript went to a publisher, because we asked a number of people to give us their comments - some of the pilots who flew 'the Hump', the route that the airmen took, as well as several of the Tibetan exiles who now live in the States. Their comments were extremely positive, which helped boost our confidence and confirm that we were on the right track.
Question: So how do two people manage to write one book?
Richard Starks: Well, writing a book these days involves so much more than just 'writing'. There's a huge amount of research to be done, so you can determine what the story really is, and how it should best be told. You also need to develop a vast amount of detail that relates, not just to the story, but also to the background - so you can tie the story to a particular time and place.
Miriam Murcutt: Then there's the whole business of finding a publisher and guiding the manuscript through the publishing process so you get a book that you actually like. Plus there's a lot of promotion and marketing, which publishers increasingly leave to their authors. So there's plenty of work to go around - more than enough for two people.
Question: So will you be writing another book together?
Richard Starks: We already have. A while back, we were commissioned to write an article for Geographical, the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society in London, about a river in Venezuela called the Casiquiare. It's a strange river - unique, in fact - because it links two other rivers, the Orinoco and the Amazon, by flowing up and over the watershed that divides them. This shouldn't be possible, because it would seem to imply that the river flows uphill. The book is called Along the River that Flows Uphill, and it has just been published in the United Kingdom and in the United States and Canada.
Question: So you must enjoy writing.
Richard Starks: I do. It's engrossing. Like an addiction. You get hooked, for reasons that defy common sense. I think it has something to do with the hope that, one day, you might be able to write the perfect word, the perfect sentence, or even, if you're lucky, as much as a perfect paragraph. It's that hope that keeps you coming back for more.
Question: Is writing non-fiction easier than writing fiction?
Richard Starks: I don't think either one is easy, although you try and make it seem that way so the reader isn't forced to do the work. With fiction, the problem is you have to make everything up, while with non-fiction, the problem is you can't make anything up. With non-fiction the story is 'out there', so before you can write it, you have to go out and get it.
Miriam Murcutt: From my point of view, finding the story, contacting the right people to talk to, and persuading them to let you into their lives - that's an enormously rewarding experience. It's also one that carries a lot of responsibility, because it is, after all, their story, and you owe it to them - and to the reader - to make sure you get it right.
Question: So writing Lost in Tibet was worth all the effort?
Richard Starks: Yes. Absolutely. Although there were days when we would both have been happy to forget all about it, and to have become lost in Tibet ourselves.
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Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt
Richard Starks
Miriam Murcutt