In 1923, W Heffer & Sons Ltd published an unusual book titled Servant of Sahibs: A Book to be Read Aloud. It is an autobiographical account of Ghulam Rassul Galwan, a Ladakhi native, who began his career as a servant and companion of European and American explorers in their expeditions through Kashmir and Central Asia. The famous explorer-writer, Sir Francis Edward Younghusband, introduces this book. Younghusband had written books on travels through Tibet and Kashmir, and Galwan served him as a pony herder on one such expedition. Servant of Sahibs is edited by the wife of the 'Sahib' to whom Galwan credits the task of "making him a man". It was this wife and husband duo, Mrs and Mr Barrett, who were responsible for laboriously assembling and editing Rassul's story. It is said that Rassul knew not more than a dozen English words when he met the couple and spent the next 14 years in toil.
Rassul had a story to tell yet little means of expression and his patrons guided him in writing this tale. "Sahib said to me: 'Rassul, you must remember. I will not let you go from my friendship until you learn English' Yes that promise got right. At this time by his kindly I learning this my style, which now I written as a book. No got any wrong in his matter'." Writing, rewriting and exchanging handwritten sheets, he delivered a manuscript.