This book is a model of international scholarship, instructive and a delight to read. Variously a booming border town, a strategic asset, a listening post, a 'nest of spies', an ideological flashpoint and a cosmopolitan retreat, topsy-turvy Kalimpong amply merits the story told here. Through the India–China Border will be of absorbing interest to Himalayanists and to anyone concerned with the interplay of external expectations and internal realities within a contested border region. John Keay, Author of Himalaya: Exploring the Roof of the World (2022)