author
Francis Henry Skrine
1847–1933
Known for writing on Central Asia, religion, and history, this English traveller and colonial official turned a long career in British India into books with a wide, curious range. His work blends on-the-ground experience with the late Victorian taste for travel, politics, and big historical subjects.
1 Audiobook
The heart of Asia : A history of Russian Turkestan and the Central Asian Khanates from the earliest times
by Francis Henry Skrine, Sir E. Denison (Edward Denison) Ross
About the author
Born in 1847, Francis Henry Bennett Skrine was an English traveller, orientalist, and official in British India. Reliable reference sources describe him as a member of the Indian Civil Service who was educated at Blackheath School and entered service in Bengal in 1868.
During his career he worked in several administrative posts and was involved in famine-related duties in Bihar and Madras in the 1870s. Later summaries of his life note that he served in roles including Collector of Customs in Calcutta and Commissioner of the Chittagong Division before retiring from the service.
Afterward, he became especially known as a writer. His books include work on Central Asia and Russian Turkestan, and he also wrote on topics as varied as Bengal, the Bahá'í faith, and eighteenth-century European history. Those subjects give his writing a broad, searching quality that still feels distinctive today.