Charles Allen

Charles Robin Allen (2 January 1940 – 16 August 2020) was a British freelance writer and popular historian from London. His British parents were both born in India and his numerous works focus on the British Raj. Biography Charles Allen was born in Kanpur, India, where six generations of his family served under the British Raj. His father was a political officer on the North East Frontier. When Allen was four years old his father, Geoffrey St G.T. Allen was appointed Assistant Political Officer on the Balipara Frontier Tract in Assam, India. For several years the family lived at Sadiay, on the banks of the Brahmaputra River. It was here that Allen met the various tribesmen, mostly Abor and Mishmi warriors, that came down from the hills. Later when Allen had returned to England he heard about the exploits of his great grandfather, Colonel St G. C. Gore, Surveyor-General of India from 1899 to 1904, who had spent a lot of time in the Himalayas. Allen also met Colonel Kenneth Mason, who had been one of the last players in The Great Game, (a term that referred to the geo-political manoeuvrings between Great Britain and Russia in the late 19th and early 20th-centuries) Allen also received inspiration for his writing from earlier authors such as Sven Hedin. When India became independent, in August 1947, the Allen family returned to England. However, not long after this move, Allen's father was asked to return to India to continue his work for the government. Allen and his brother stayed on in England to complete their education. Allen left Canford school, Dorset, with no qualifications. His only formal education was 18 months at a college in Perugia, Italy. Between 1966 and 1967 Allen moved to Nepal to work with Voluntary Service Overseas. In Nepal Allen developed a fascination with Buddhism and as time passed he began to see himself as “Buddhist”. In Kathmandu he met his future wife, Liz Gould, whom he married in 1972. Allen supported the rights of low-caste Dalits, opposing the injustices that he had seen when growing up in India. It was at this time that he became convinced that he had a future as a travel writer. Following his work with Voluntary Service Overseas, Allen embarked on a Himalayan Trek which won him the Sunday Telegraph Traveler of the year trophy in 1967. Success as a writer, came in 1974 via his involvement with the BBC Radio 4 oral history series and subsequent book Plain Tales from the Raj.