Harold E. Palmer: From Learner-Teacher to Legend

Abstract

Makhan L. Tickoo has been an authority on the life and work of Harold Palmer since the 1960s when he devoted a substantial chapter to him in a PhD thesis submitted to London University (Tickoo 1968). A book based on this work (which included material derived from interviews with contemporaries like Michael West) would have been invaluable at the time, but we have had to wait until now before being able to benefit from this and later research. The present book is published in India, a decision which reinforces one of Tickoo's underlying themes, namely the ‘special relationship’ he believes Palmer contracted with ‘the Orient’ (we shall return to this below). By personalizing his subject in his subtitle, Tickoo suggests a study slanted more towards biography than critical analysis, but the reverse is the case. The book is long (420 pages) but divided into two more or less...