The Road to Samarcand

[Etranger]

Always nice to see an autogiro - suitably Pulp.

The French had 50 of them at the beginning of WWII which were intended for artillery spotting

[Driscoles]

Yes, Triumph & Tragedy is very suitable for your project. If you have questions or need any help do not hesitate and contact me.
Cheers
Björn

[Mister Rab]

Having observed me read and love the Aubrey/Maturin cycle, my wife gave me 'Samarcand' for Christmas. I did enjoy it, and all the way through I kept thinking "Mmm, pulp-tastic!" The helicopter jolted me out of the era I thought it should be in, though, and felt a bit too clumsy a deus ex machina moment.

[Blackglengarry]

I actually just finished the book a few days ago.  And yes I found the "get to de choppa!" moment a bit cheesy and anachronistic.  However, the great thing about the book is the fact that it is a fantastic adventure.  So I could write it off as a big experimental autogyro or even some kind of weird airship in my mind.  An interesting thing about the book is that if you read a synopsis online they will tell you that the yetis are just monks masquerading as monsters but in the book they never explicitly say that...

[Jim French]

Blackglengarry,
You might find Fitzroy MacLean's Easter Approaches an interesting read.  The first part deals with his career in the British Foreign Service in Paris, London, and Moscow.  When his colleagues would take their vacations back to England, Maclean would go to the local railroad station and buy a ticket to Samarkand or Tashkent or Bokhara.  The local Intourist people had told him he was forbidden in those regions.  Reasoning that the different sections of bureaucracy didn't talk to each other he simply bought his ticket and went.  In the dead of winter on his last journey Maclean was sitting in a warm restaurant.  He noticed his NKVD Tail outside in the cold and invited him and bought him dinner!
The bulk of the book deals with his experiences in North Africa and Yugoslavia with the SAS.