TIGER FOR BREAKFAST: The Story of Boris Lissanevitch of Kathmandu

Peissel's last youthful travel adventure was the wonderful The Lost World of Quintana Roo (1963, p. 435). With his magnificent new subject, Boris Lissanevitch, he outdoes himself with spectacle and has a sure international winner. Boris is the fabulous restaurateur and hotelkeeper who is ""the second greatest attraction in Nepal after Mount Everest."" Boris, who danced for Diaghilev's Ballet Russe in Paris, is the intimate of Stravinsky and a stable of thoroughbred celebrities. He is the best friend of the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, with whom he tiger hunts. At his palatial Royal Hotel he throws entertainments and coronations on a Wellesian or DeMille scale. Sir Edmund Hillary and others have brought him down pieces of rock from Everest and Annapurna. A White Russian who escaped the Revolution, the Russian embassy consistently hires him to cater their embassy balls in Kathmandu where the Royal Hotel spreads its 750 rooms--rooms stunningly decorated with happy religious erotica. It is only during the last 15 years that Nepal has opened its gates to Europe. There, no radios blare in the streets and the Nepalese smile constantly. No visitor leaves unmoved by the Himalayan grandeur and the unassuming Nepalese, or by the sight of Boris in orbit. Peissel's portrait is a labor of love in bright pigments.