Isambard Wilkinson was sent by The Daily Telegraph to Pakistan in 2006 to report on “the war on terror”. In his mind, though, Osama Bin Laden and his like were “distractions from the real quarry: the essence, the quiddity of Pakistan, which I hoped to find by encountering its mystics, tribal chiefs and feudal lords”. It’s the latter that he sets out to concentrate on in his debut, Travels in A Dervish Cloak (Eland). Reviewing the book for the writer’s former employers, in the Review section of The Daily Telegraph, Arthur Evelyn says that Wilkinson, “an engaging and enthusiastic guide”, “gives a glimpse of the joy and vitality to be found in this most complicated of countries, but he cannot escape from some of the unpleasant realities”. There are also reviews in The Spectator, The Irish Times, The National (Abu Dhabi) and The Asian Review of Books.