The RSAA and its personalities

Strolling About on the Roof of the World: the first Hundred years of the the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, Hugh Leach & Susan Farrington, Routledge 2001

The history of the RSAA, Strolling about on the Roof of the World, was written in connection with the Society’s centenary in 2001 by the late Hugh Leach OBE, then the Society’s Historian. It covers the first hundred years of the Society’s existence and includes some of the Society’s unique archival photographs, not previously published. It tells the story of an organisation originally founded so that imperial administrators and explorers could network with each other, gaining the attention and participation of the political classes of the 1920s and 1930s, providing a channel for semi-covert briefings during the Second World War, and adapting to the post-imperial commercial focus of British interests in Asia.

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A Small Room in Clarges Street: Wartime Lectures at the Royal Central Asian Society 1942-1944, ed. Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, Liverpool University Press 2014

During the Second World War a select group of people gathered together in Mayfair to listen to a series of secret lectures organised by the Royal Central Asian Society (now the Royal Society for Asian Affairs). Lecturers and their hand-picked audience examined fast-moving events in the Middle East, Persia and Russia with the intention to propose strategies for Britain’s post-war international role. Secrecy surrounded these lectures, and the audience was warned not to reveal the topics discussed outside the Clarges Street premises. The discussions were held knowing that frank views could be freely expressed, and they are included in this volume.

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Seen in the Yemen: Travelling with Freya Stark and Others, Hugh Leach, Arabian Publishing 2011

In 1951, Freya Stark was one of the earliest recipients of the RSAA Medal (then known as the Sir Percy Sykes Memorial Medal). In this book the RSAA’s historian, Hugh Leach, records his experiences of travelling with Freya Stark and other explorers of the Gulf region.

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Just Hugh: Hugh Raymond Leach Remembered, Susan Farrington & Norman Cameron. Arabian Publishing 2022

Just Hugh is a portrait of Hugh Leach, the historian of the RSAA, an end-of-era soldier, diplomat, traveller and, above all, charismatic enthusiast. The title reflects his passion for Just William books, one of his many and varied interests. The book combines anecdotes and recollections about him with his own reminiscences in his later years. Tales from twenty-five years of service between the Nile and the Euphrates and travels throughout Central Asia are interwoven with biographical details to create a ‘memory book’ of this unique, much missed, man of many parts.

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Round and About in Asia: The Royal Society for Asian Affairs Tours 1971-1995, ed. Marinel FitzSimons and Susan Farrington, RSAA 2004

In 1971 the RSAA marked its 70th anniversary by organising a tour for Society members to Afghanistan.  This was at a time before budget airlines, and visiting many parts of the world was, for most people, very difficult:  transport was limited and often expensive; tourism was very little developed in places to which travel is now common; the adventure travel industry did not exist. The chance to visit many Asian destinations was rare.  Tours became an annual feature of the RSAA’s calendar, and remained so until changes in the travel industry in the 2000s  made these once scarce opportunities easily available. This volume is a unique record of twenty-four years of those tours. We have a very few copies remaining. Some, although in mint condition, include a library bookplate of the late Hugh Leach.

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