Recently in Biography and autobiography Category
In 2006, Chinese Canadian journalist Jan Wong returned to Beijing, with her family, on a quest to track down the fellow student she had shopped to the Maoist authorities in the early 1970s for wanting to leave China for America. In her account, Jan Wong illustrates just how much China changed in the intervening 35 years, just as she had. Five years on, and post the 2008 Olympics, China's changed even more.
Amazon.co.uk link: Chinese Whispers: Searching for Forgiveness in Beijing - Jan Wong
Rupert Everett's frank and fascinating autobiography, filled with celebrities, luvvies and thesps, family and friends.
Amazon.co.uk link:
Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins - Rupert Everett
Peter's Hessler's second book drawing upon his time in China, ranging from pre history and the archaeological record represented by the Oracle Bones themselves to the social and political change of 20th and 21st centuries, telling the stories of the Uighurs of Xinjiang, academics who lived through the Cultural Revolution, his River Town students who become the migrant workers out in the stimulated economies of the Special Economic Zones. All completely fascinating. Editing could have been tighter though - but don't let the random reappearances of topics put you off.
Amazon.co.uk link: Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China and the West - Peter Hessler
Stewart Lee's explanation of the genesis and inner workings of his stand up routines, matching the period during which Phil introduced me to both halves of Lee and Herring.
Other parallels within Stew's own life and mine: growing up in Solihull in the 70s and 80s, and a parent who moved out from the Birmingham suburbs to the rural world of Hereford and Worcestershire.
Amazon.co.uk link: How I Escaped My Certain Fate - Stewart Lee
Left behind by Tom (at a guess) at the cottage in the Christmas to New Year period, A View from the Foothills is the first set of political diaries I've manages to read all the way through. Readable for two reasons - Chris Mullin comes across as a genuine MP, rather than one in it for fame and fortune, with a real human's failings and foibles, and the period he writes about (July 1999 - 09 May 2005) features events that I lived through and thought about as an adult.
One small niggle about the book though, is that Jean Corston appears through out and yet she's not listed as a member of the 'Cast' at the start of the book. She's an unfamiliar name to me, and yet comes across as an influential and respected player in the murky world of Westminster and the wider political world from party and international relations.
Amazon.co.uk link: A View from the Foothills - The diaries of Chris Mullin
The end of the road for IB, and Tim Mackintosh-Smith, his 21st century shadow.
"It isn't the end, of course. As long as people read, and travel, and write, as long as readers take to the road then go home - whatever it is that home has become - to tell their stories, the journey never ends. It is both circular and linear, a double helix inscribing itself back into the past and forward into the future."Tim Mackintosh-Smith, p350
Amazon.co.uk link: Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam with Ibn Battutah - Tim Mackintosh-Smith
I bought this to read in advance of my trip to Libya.... and still haven't got through it all. I found it much more readable once I'd been through / to some of the places described in Hugh Clapperton's account, in particular the Fezzan. But not readable enough to finish.... and very disappointed that the quote used as the book's title continues ... "for camels...", making it sound rather less difficult and dangerous for human beings.
The autumn 2010 issue of The North Magazine includes a piece on Clapperton (page 36) and a photo of Ghat medina that I took on my trip (page 37) - just click on the bottom right hand cover of each emagazine page to turn to the next page.
Fascinating account of the life of Joseph Needham, a Cambridge academic biologist who became an authority on China and the history of it's culture and science; and an equally fascinating and unusual insight into China's jack knife social, political and cultural changes since the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Travels along the length of the not-so-Blue Danube, crossing borders from Germany to Romania, traversing cultures, economies and the old iron curtain, and culminating in a dip in the Black Sea.
Like the river, long but vastly varied.
Amazon.co.uk link: Blue River, Black Sea - Andrew Eames
Lent to me by Lindsey.... it reads like an account of my life at various stages, starting from c 1997. It's not just an autobiographical account of Kasey Edwards's mid life career crisis - told with large dollops of self deprecating humour (with a smidgen of Bridget Jones); there are several well researched and summarised sections on relevant theories and findings.
And I now realise that some of my most successful career moves have been of the 'lilypad' variety....
Amazon.co.uk link: 30-something and Over it: What Happens When You Wake Up and Don't Want to Go to Work ... Ever Again - Kasey Edwards
Marvellous sequel to Travels with a Tangerine, with Tim and artist side kick Martin Yeoman, following in Ibn Battutah's footsteps through the Sultanates and Kingdoms of 14th century India.
Spendid travellers' tales told with many a lovely turn of phrase, and plenty of context - present day, historical and geographical.
I can't believe I have let The Hall of a Thousand Columns sit unread on my bookshelf since receiving it as my leaving present from Norton Rose, way back in 2005!
...and googling for Martin Yeoman has revealed:
"The third and final part of Tim Mackintosh-Smith's trilogy on the 14th-century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battutah will be published by John Murray in July 2010. Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam with Ibn Battutah follows the Arab wanderer's eccentric route from the Maldives to Andalusia via China and Timbuktu.
As with Tim's previous books, Martin's drawings will accompany the text, and the jacket will feature one of his paintings. Martin himself will make a guest appearance in the Chinese and Spanish chapters."
I can't wait!
Amazon.co.uk link: The Hall of a Thousand Columns - Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Suffused throughout with references to John Simpson's baby son, this autobiography-cum-collection of travel memoirs is a mixed bag.
I struggled at times with the mix of deeply personal autobiography (You can't begrudge Simpson's love for his family, particularly when he explains why becoming a father again was such an unexpected joy) and the slightly self righteous political commentary (possibly all the more galling because more often than not I find my self agreeing with John Simpson's view!).
The other irritation about the book was the repetition of certain events, often told as if for the first time.
For me, a bit more editing would not have gone amiss.
But Not Quite World's End is well worth reading despite both these elements, if simply to piggyback on John Simpson's years of experience of reporting on world affairs - he is not deterred by the powerful or the poor, and through forty years with the BBC has contacts and fixers galore, all of which means that he's able to share the detail and an analysis of important events in less well known or well understood parts of the globe - from Baghdad to Belgrade, from the forced relocation of Botswana's Kalahari Bushmen to the "disingenuous" use of intelligence material to persuade the British parliament to back the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Amazon.co.uk link: Not Quite World's End: A Traveller's Tales - John Simpson
A fascinating read about mountaineer turned philanthropist (not sure that's the right description - Greg Mortenson comes across as decidedly more DIY and hands on than that title suggests) Greg Mortenson who fails to summit K2 but discovers the beauty of the people and places of Northern Pakistan and devotes his life to building schools and bridges - real and metaphorical in this remote and ill-understood (by the West) part of the world.
A fantastic read if you've been or are going to the area (Wild Frontiers even offer a 'Three cups of tea' tour now - not that dissimilar to my Hindu Kush Adventure), and a humbling and enlightening one for all.
Links:
A bit heavy going if I'm honest, The Island of Lost Maps felt like it would have made a great magazine article, but had to be stretched too thin to make a book.
The two themes that run through the book are the history of maps and cartographic kleptomaniac Gilbert Bland who stole an unknown number of maps from university and city library collections across North America. There were a few points of interest: how tempting it is for collectors to break bound books because they can make more by selling off the individual maps than they can the whole; how some of the institutions that had maps stolen were/are reluctant to admit this for fear of highlighting how lax their security is (and how low on their list of expenditure library collections have sunk); but the main thrust is Harvey's own quest to find Gilbert Bland, which just wasn't that interesting to me.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Island of Lost Maps: A Story of Cartographic Crime
Another book by a Western chap recounting experiences and encounters from his time living in a muslim country - this time Christopher de Bellaigue in Iran. It's a less engaging read than On the Road to Kandahar, but Christopher de Bellaigue still provides interesting insights into the day to day lives of a range of Iranians he has met.
Published in 2004, the book felt a little bit dated now. That said, it would have been good to read before my trip to Iran last year as the book provides easily digestible background on key figures such as Imam Husain, and 20th century events, ranging from the Russian and British influence, to the Islamic Revolution, to the Iran-Iraq war.
Amazon.co.uk: In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran - Christopher de Bellaigue
A fascinating read - part travelogue, part education on the politics, beliefs and myths surrounding Al-Qaeda. It's not dry academic analysis in the slightest - in fact On the Road to Kandahar is an engaging, informed and personal view of the Islamic world, and one that is very easy to read.
Amazon.co.uk: On the Road to Kandahar: Travels Through Conflict in the Islamic World - Jason Burke
A fascinating account of the life of Kawaguchi Ekai, a Japanese zen monk who travelled to Tibet at the turn of the last century, at a time when the country was closed to foreigners and little known. His travels took him to British India, and to the remote mountain kingdoms of Nepal and Ladakh, Lo and Sikkim, and en route he learned Tibetan to supplement his disguise as a Chinese monk. He also studied Sanskrit to allow him to translate the Buddhist scriptures that were the reason for his journey.
Kawaguchi's adventures took him over the high Himalaya passes on foot, across the tough Tibetan plateau where cold, altitude and the locals can kill, wading through snow-fed rivers to follow unmapped and little used routes between Buddhist shrines and small settlements; his route would be a difficult one today, but in the opening years of the 20th century, living off a meagre vegetarian diet and always needing to mask his true identity it was a miracle he survived to tell his tale. Not only that, but to return to Tibet once its seclusion was shattered by the British and then the Chinese, in the closing years of the Great Game.
Amazon.co.uk link: A Stranger in Tibet: The Adventures of a Zen Monk - Scott Berry
A two stage read, but one I'm glad I persevered with - especially once Peter Fleming and Eva Maillart's journey reached the far west of China, and headed over into the Hunza valley and into what is now Pakistan, what was then British India.
It's a fascinating account of China and the North West Frontier in the mid 1930s, complete with what now read as antiquated spellings and opinions/perspectives. The book tell of the seven months Fleming and Kini spent on the 3500 mile journey from Peking to Kashmir, travelling by camel, donkey, horse and foot during a wartorn time for the far flung provinces of the Chinese world - and with the final rumblings of the Great Game still sounding loudly in this remote part of the world where Russian, British and Chinese empires met. As the intrepid explorers travel further west, they travel through a desert region populated mainly by nomads and warlords who view themselves as having more in common with their fellow Tatar tribes of Central Asia than the Chinese holding power in Peking.
Next: tracking down Forbidden Journey for Ella Maillart's version! Maybe a read for this autumn's Central Asia Overland trip.....
Amazon.co.uk link: News from Tartary - Peter Fleming
Dad and Jean bought me this as a birthday gift when they were visiting last year, and I've only just got around to reading it. A tricky format for bedtime reading (large, square, hardback), but I persevered, and the bite size biographies of women travellers from the 17th to 20th centuries were fascinating.
The accounts are grouped in themes - from artists to adventurers - and illustrated with portraits and pictures from the National Portrait Gallery. Interestingly, Dea Birkett not only covers British women's travels to far flung parts, but also visits to Britain by women from other countries, from Pocahontas to Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit.
Amazon.co.uk link: Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers - Dea Birkett
Superbly readable set of highlights of Tim Mackintosh-Smith's 13 year residency in Yemen, taking you to the highlands and lowlands, oases and deserts, mountains and coast, mainland and islands, cities and villages, and providing historical and cultural insights throughout.
Now, who runs trips there.....?
Amazon.co.uk link: Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land - Tim Mackintosh-Smith
A great story of Jonny's travels, on horse back as far a possible, from Islamabad to the Caspian via Kashgar and the wilds of Central Asia.
As he acknowledges throughout the book, Jonny brought some of the trials and tribulations on himself, embarking on the trip still raw from the breakup with the girlfriend with whom he'd planned the adventure. Instead he is accompanied by 23 year old Londoner Sarah, who he'd selected at short notice - the TV company funding the trip were doing so on the premise that it would result in video diaries and a documentary featuring Jonny, his girlfriend and the romance of the old Silk Road.
There are great anecdotes and adventures, with vivid descriptions of the characters they meet and the difficulties they all face, but perhaps the biggest story is the fragile relationship between Jonny and Sarah. Inevitably this book shows Jonny's take on things - which makes me want to track down the series that did eventually get broadcast.
Amazon.co.uk link: Silk Dreams, Troubled Road - Jonny Bealby
Occupational Hazards is Rory Stewart's personal account of his time working in the Western teams responsible for governing two provinces in Iraq during 2003 and 2004, a period when the Coalition Provisional Authority sought to bring sufficient stability to the country to allow for a successful handover to an Iraqi government.
I'd been wanting to read this ever since The Places In Between brought about the realisation that the author isn't the traditional Oxbridge generated diplomat, but rather an independent thinker who brings a deep understanding and innate sympathy for the people and cultures he encounters. Not that this makes him a soft touch, as his accounts of political wheeler dealing with the tribes of Marsh Arabs of Maysan, and brushes with death during the attacks at Nasiriyah reveal.
An enlightening read, and a powerful first hand account of events that news reports and government statements made seem anodyne, remote and impersonal; the reality of war rather than the spin and an attempt to show just how complex the political, religious and social landscape in the region was, and is.
Amazon.co.uk link: Occupational Hazards: My Time Governing in Iraq - Rory Stewart
A fascinating account of the Balkans during the 1990s, combining nostalgic accounts of prior holidays in more tranquil times with analysis of the complex political, historical, ethnic and military mix in play in the region at the close of the 20th century, when journalist and writer Simon Winchester travelled from Vienna to Istanbul.
There are no easy answers, but there is plenty of digestible analysis and first hand accounts, from Winchester and the ordinary Serbs, Croats, Bosnians Kosovans, Montenegrans, Albanians, Macedonians, Turks, Slavs, Gypsies, Jews, Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Communists ... he meets, as well as his encounters with NATO forces, British military, NGOs and aid groups.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Fracture Zone: A Return to the Balkans - Simon Winchester
Again, another book it's taken me years to pick up, principally because for a long time I thought - incorrectly - that the author was Lord Byron, the 18th century poet. My mistake, my loss.
The Road to Oxiana is an account by Robert Byron, a distant descendant, of his travels through the Middle East to Central Asia in 1933/1934 - close enough in time to Empire for the Great Game still be living memory, and for the key geopolitical units to include Persia and Sinkiang.
Whilst Byron's privileged background means that his accounts of the people he meets is coloured by the social norms of the time (which isn't always bad - there are some fantastic encounters with Governors and Ambassadors), he did get to see and explore some amazing locations and architectural gems that are now either lost or out of reach. That said, I see that Wild Frontiers are running trips to Afghanistan, so perhaps, one day, I too will get to visit Herat.
There are wonderful photos too, some of places I have been lucky enough to visit and it's fascinating to see what has changed in the intervening 80 years, for example in Soltaniyeh Yazd and Isfahan.
For accounts of travels in the region in the last 20th/early 21st century, read:
* Shadow of the Silk Road - Colin Thubron
* The Carpet Wars - Christopher Kremmer
* The Places in Between - Rory Stewart
* Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran - Christiane Bird
Amazon.co.uk link: The Road to Oxiana - Robert Byron
My appetite for travel whetted by Colin Thubron's Shadow of the Silk Road, I plunged straight into Henry Hemming's account of his travels through the Middle East in the company of one/two fellow artists and a truck called Yasmine.
Whilst it's not fair to compare the writing of an established author with that of a first timer fresh out of university, the fact that both books featured Iran made this somewhat inevitable. What surprised me was the Henry Hemming didn't come off too badly - helped by two facts:
1. he and his friends were spending time in the region to make art, and this gave them entrees into the artistic communities in those countries, with the result that he encounters views and experiences that rarely feature in British newspaper coverage
2. they were there in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, and Henry and his pal Al still get to Baghdad.
Amazon.co.uk link: Misadventure in the Middle East: Travels as Tramp, Artist and Spy - Henry Hemming
I loved this book. Colin Thubron's reflections on his trip from China to Turkey bring to life the places through which he travels, the people that he meets, and gives well written, well researched context to both. Unlike accounts by some other travel writers, there nothing to cringe at or be embarrassed by, just page after page of observation and analysis that fascinates and enlightens.
An excellent, excellent book.
I'm definitely doing a Silk Road trip next year....
Amazon.co.uk link: Shadow of the Silk Road - Colin Thubron
A spur of the moment purchase at the St Giles Cripplegate summer fete, this book is a gem.
I must confess a general ignorance about Korea, other than random facts such as "It's the sticky out bit between China/Russia and Japan", "It is split into North Korea ("baddies") and South Korea ("goodies")" and "M*A*S*H was set in the Korean War (and not the Vietnam War as a lot of people assume)". Having read Simon Winchester's account of his walk from the island of Cheju in the far south to Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone that forms the frontier between North and South Korea, I feel rather more enlightened, and wondering how best to get my head around developments since 1988 when this book was written.
The route was inspired by the journey made by shipwrecked Dutch sailors in 1688, who became the first Westerners to enter and leave the Kingdom of Korea. As he travels, Winchester provides details of the history, culture and beliefs of the people of Korea since then, and develops insights into how these enabled them to survive the 20th century events of invasion, international, cold and then civil war and to create a thriving economy (Daewoo, Hyundai, Samsung), in the South at least.
Winchester is quite clear that he would have loved to have continued his walk all the way through the demilitarised zone and gained comparable exposure to the people and places of the North. For my part, reading his account has given me the idea of adding another destination(s) to my list (as Catherine observed: going for another country in the Axis of Evil).
Amazon.co.uk link: Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles - Simon Winchester
A whistlestop account of Ted Simon's journey around the world on his trusty Triumph motorbike in the mid-1970s. Fascinating journey, through worlds which have changed much in the intervening thirty years.
Given the scale of Ted Simon's journey, it's not surprising that people and places flash by - apart from his problems with the Brazilian authorities on his arrival in South America which (currently) feel like they are getting more than their fair share of the book. It's also quite hard to find natural breaks in the story; the "chapters" follow the continents, and Africa took up almost all of the first half of the book. Many pages after he leaves South Africa, we're still stuck in northern Brazil, sans bike.
The second half of the book covers ground a lightning speed - zooming down the eastern side of South America and back up the western coast, zipping through Central America in a couple of pages before a chilled out, loved up stay in California. The whole of Australia and Malaysia go in a mere 36 pages (seven of which give his account of a merry time holed up in the outback with a quartet of truck drivers waiting for flash floods to subside) , and whilst India gets more of a look in, the journey on from there back to Ted Simon's home in France takes 10 just pages - and that's for Pakistan -> Afghanistan -> Iran -> Turkey -> Greece -> Yugoslavia -> Germany -> Switzerland -> France.
Jupiter's Travels was not an obvious book for me, but I'd spotted a copy in a bookshop somewhere before the book was republished (to bask in the reflected glory of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's adventures on more modern motorbikes, albeit not travelling quite so far) and had added it to my wishlist, from whence it was bought by TJBR for my birthday this year. Although I do now seem to have lots of motorbike themed recommended reads....
Amazon.co.uk link: Jupiter's Travels - Ted Simon
In The Age of Kali William Dalrymple writes of his encounters - chance meetings and hard won interviews - and his observations of people, places and events across the length and breadth of India and Pakistan - from the Imran Khan in Peshawar to the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka - at the close of the 20th century. There are insights into history, religions and politics. A fascinating set of articles
Amazon.co.uk link: The Age of Kali - William Dalrymple
Another of my pre-trip reads, I'd put this on my Amazon wish list for Christmas, and Rachel had come up trumps. What I'd not anticipated was that the two volumes of Marjane Satrapi's autobiography contained in Persepolis come in black and white comic strip form. That made for a speedy read, but one that had more immediate impact than Neither East Nor West, and one that documented and illustrated the experience of an Iranian girl/woman born the same year as I was with a huge amount of honesty.
In The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi tells how (pre-)teenage years take her from middle class affluence in Tehran through the Revolution and Iran-Iraq war and the impact they had on her life and that of her family and friends, to life in the West - where adolescent Marjane turns to drink and drugs and ends up living rough on the streets of 1980s Vienna.
In The Story of a Return, we see more of Tehran in the 1990s as Marjane matures from her teens to her twenties, studies art and marries, gets a job as an illustrator and divorces finally leaving Iran in 1994 to study in France. All before she was 25.
Amazon.co.uk link: Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
A timely read, in the month (all being well) I head off on my trip to Iran. Christiane Bird's book provides insight and opinion on modern day Iran as well as detail on history and geography, culture and politics, drawn from the experiences Christiane Bird gained and the people she met as she travelled around Iran in 1998.
Whilst naturally taking a female, western (US) perspective Christiane Bird balances gut reactions with conversations and explanations that result from the opportunity afforded to her as a woman (able to meet and freely discourse with other women) and a westerner. The book does not avoid difficult topics, including religious and personal freedoms, and the inevitable conclusion is that mutual misunderstanding results from preconceived ideas, and that all societies and cultures (and countries) merely reflect the people who create and occupy them, and individuals are more complex and varied than the stereotypes allow.
Amazon.co.uk link: Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran - Christiane Bird
The Places in Between describes Rory Stewart's walk from Herat to Kabul, over the mountains, rather than via the valleys and Khandahar, following in the footsteps of Moghul Emperor and empire builder Babur.
It is a fascinating read about the remote mountainous places and peoples of Afghanistan, in the months after the fall of the Taliban in 2002, and beautifully written. All in all it makes me more inclined to read Occupational Hazards Rory Stewart's account of his time as governer in post-invasion Iraq - I'd not realised he was one and the same, enlightened chap.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Places in Between - Rory Stewart
I found Paul Theroux's account of his travels along the British coastline rather bit hard going. His achievement is undeniable, all the more so as I suspect to repeat his travels 20 or so years later would be a lot harder - in several chapters you're made very aware that even in the early 80s the days of the coast-serving branch lines of Great Britain were numbered and by now many of them will have passed. And it was interesting to read an American (an anglo-friendly one)'s account of British attitudes to the Falklands War as those events unfolded in the North and South Atlantic.
So what didn't I enjoy? I think it was the flip side of that sense of reading history - knowing that the people and places, the attitudes and environment that Paul Theroux talks about no longer exist, at least not as he describes them. And looking back to 1982 really does feel like reading history, and I was keenly aware of how little of it matched with my own memories as a 12 year growing up in the Birmingham suburbs, about as far from the sea as it's possible to be.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Kingdom by the Sea - Paul Theroux
I really wasn't sure about reading Jonny Bealby's account of his first trip to Pakistan/Afghanistan - I'd borrowed it from the library before going on the Wild Frontiers' trip to the Hindu Kush, and not read it for fear of spoiling my own first encounters, or jinxing the long awaited and much looked forward to adventure.
Fortunately I decided to give it a whirl after the event, and I am very glad that I did too. This book is not merely an account of Jonny's trip to a difficult part of the world, but it's also an account of his ongoing personal journey to come to terms with his girlfriend's death many years before. The combination is extremely powerful and I am sure I'm not the only reader who cried at various poignant moments.
It was lovely hearing Jonny describe his first meeting with Saifullah and the Kalash at the end of his journeys, and his descriptions of the arduous route he took there - from Dehli to Peshawar, over the Khyber Pass and into the Afghan side of the North West Frontier - deliberately echo Kipling's tale of The Man Who Would Be King, which first inspired the trip. It provides a fascinating insight into the region in the period preceeding 11 September 2001, and leaves you even more aware of how remote and independent the area is, and its people too.
A fantastic book.
Amazon.co.uk link: For a Pagan Song: In the Footsteps of the Man Who Would Be King - Travels in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan - Jonny Bealby
Back to history-based travel writing after my recent detours into mediaeval and (almost) modern history, with Andrew Eames' account of the mid-life Middle Eastern travels of Agatha Christie managing to mirror Colm Toibin's biography of a famous author theme.
I thoroughly enjoyed this account of Andrew Eames' journey from Berkshire to Baghdad. Tracing Agatha Christie's own travels on the Orient Express in its heyday (and minus murders), Eames takes us on an increasingly adventurous itinery from British suburbia through continental Europe into the Balkans through Turkey to Syria and finally across the desert and into pre-war Iraq. I realised that his trip to Iraq was with Hinterland Travel - run by a knowledgable and reassuring chap called Geoff, with whom I had an interesting chat at a Destinations travel exhibition years ago.
At the same time he tells the fascinating story of Agatha Christie's life, from her failed first marriage to her happier second marriage and archaeological digs in the then British Mandate of Mesopotamia. I swiftly revised my Miss Marple image ....
Amazon.co.uk link: The 8.55 to Baghdad - Andrew Eames
I wasn't too sure I was in the mood for an erudite biography of Henry James, particularly as I've never read any of his novels (although I watched the film version of The Portriat of a Lady, I was not inspired to read the novel), but Colm Toibin's lightly fictionalised account of Henry James' life during the final years of the 19th century was a joy to read.
This novel brings to life James' family and friendships, his American upbringing at the time of the Civil War and the ways he used his novels to provide alternate lives for the people he loved, and for his relationships with them. I put down this book with a feeling of immense sadness arising from James' inability to allow himself to recognise or accept the love he felt for others and they for him.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Master - Colm Toibin
A hefty hardback which contains a great tale of two chaps on the trail of Prester John, the mythical and mystical mediaeval priest-king who, legend had it, ruled over a Christian kingdom located somewhere in the mysterious orient, beyond the muslim-controlled lands of the Middle East and North Africa, and with wealth beyond compare.
In 2000 Nicholas Jubber persuaded his mate Mike to accompany him on a mission to follow in the footsteps of Master Philip, a mediaeval physician, who in 1177 was instructed by Pope Alexander III to carry a letter to Prester John asking for help in Christendom's Crusade in the Holy Land.
We follow Nick and Mike's journey from Venice around the Eastern Mediterranean and the still-troubled lands of the Middle East and thence into North Africa and south, through the Sudan and into Ethiopia. En route we learn how history, religion and current affairs continue to combine in much the same way as they did over 800 years ago when Master Philip and Pope Alexander were exchanging letters and progress reports.
A very readable book that ticks the boxes for travel writing and mediaeval+modern history. If you like William Dalrymple, you'll like this (and vice versa).
Buy it: Amazon link
My first taste of Dervla Murphy, although I've looked at her travel books many times. I'm not sure I'll be trying any others - I didn't like the style or the subjective opinions in this record of her travels in the north of Pakistan over the winter of 1974/1975, taking her 6 year old daughter with her. That said, it was interesting to read about places visited on the Hindu Kush Adventure, and Skardu and environs which Rob, who lent me this book, has been exploring on his own (well, with a guide, jeep driver and cook!), and in particular details of the area's transport/infrstructure, society and culture thirty years ago.
Amazon.co.uk link: Where the Indus Is Young: Walking to Baltistan - Dervla Murphy
In Xanadu turned out to be an excellent choice as my sole LHR departure lounge purchase. Having finished In the Company of Cheerful Ladies in Peshawar, I moved on to William Dalrymple's account of his journey from Cambridge to China, accompanied by the no nonsense Laura as far as Lahore, and subsequently by ex-girlfriend Louisa.
Following as far as possible in the footsteps of Marco Polo, William and his ladies travelled from Cyprus to Israel to Syria to Turkey to Iran to Pakistan and thence across China to Beijing. Fascinating, with history and architecture interwoven with pen portraits of people they meet en route - and interesting to see/hear the young William Dalrymple. My undergraduate summer holiday activities were nowhere near so adventurous.
Buy it: Amazon link
I'm sorry to say that I've given up on this novel. I fear it suffered by being tackled at a time when work was busy and stressful - when only easy reading is desired - and Phil and I were watching Our Friends in the North on DVD, which covers somewhat similar territory: the loving yet difficult relationship between a successful middle-class son and a strong, successful working-class (grand)father and the disappointment-filled relationship between successful son and alcoholic father(figure). The 1960s boom in high density public housing and development of New Towns of high rise flats provide another common strand.
Foreign Babes in Beijing portrays Rachel DeWoskin's time in 1990s Beijing, working both as an actress on a soap and in the equally superficial world (some would say) of PR. The people this American graduate meets and befriends over the years she spends in China never really come alive, and I got the end of the book feeling that DeWoskin hadn't really managed to do them justice. On the other hand, she provides an amusing insider (of sorts)'s view of the workings of Chinese TV production, and her early struggles to settle and succeed in a country and a culture very different from her own.
Buy it: Amazon link
It's now 15 October, and I'm sooo behind with my 'reading' blog, that I'm going to have to do a whistlestop tour of the things I've read over the past three months - although work has been so busy that I've not been reading at my usual rate.
Starting with.... With Nails - Richard E. Grant's autobiography. Probably marginally more interesting if you know who he is, but his dry self deprecating style provides readable wry comment on the film world in the US and the UK - without the self importance of William Goldman's books on screenwriting.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another great book about another culture and another part of the world. Chris Bird's book tells the twin tales of his family's experiences of living in the Caucasus and his experiences reporting on current affairs in the region over the course of 3 (4?) years at the end of the 20th century - notably the various wars in and about Chechnya. The personal descriptions are supplemented by Chris Bird's own account and analysis of the region's history, and the complexities of Chechnya, the Caucasus, and indeed many of the republics that formed the USSR, Russia in particular.
I'd love to know how Chris Bird is getting on with his career change - the book says that he was studying medicine in London at the time of publication.
Buy it: Amazon link
I thoroughly enjoyed this account of the various Christian communities that live(d) in the Middle East. It's fascinating to learn how many of the regions we think of as muslim have older Christian cultures (plural), and for how long these societies have lived together in the Middle East. William Dalrymple does not shy away from looking at why many of the Christian cultures are slowly but surely disappearing, but neither does he lay blame in an indiscriminate fashion as he travels around the countries that form the eastern and southern borders of the Mediterranean Sea.
A bit strange reading it on a small island in the middle of the South Atlantic.
Buy it: Amazon link
I went for something completely different (see musings at close of previous post). In Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8): A Memoir of Love, Exile and Crosswords Sandy Balfour combines travel and autobiography with an explanation of how crosswords 'work', how to decode clues and encounters with the crossword setting cognoscenti. Fascinating.
Buy it: Amazon link
I chanced upon this in one of Hereford's second hand bookshops (Hay doesn't have them all!!) and took it with me to Yalta, which is in the Crimea where Neal Ascherson's excellent anthropological, historical and politcal account of the Black Sea begins.
As Hazel and I visited the greek ruins at Chersonesus (now a seaside surburb of Sevastopol), the Khan's Palace at Bakchisarai, and the Genoese fortress and Soviet submarine base at Balaclava, and the harbours and hills of Sevastopol, the book offered additional backstory to the excellent information provided by Voyages Jules Verne's local guides.
The book is broader in the context than simply the Crimea; Neal Ascherson considers the majority of the Black Sea coast, and it is a fascinating part of the world, a real melting pot of peoples for millennia, and only in very recent history has it become perceived as a frontier between 'east' and 'west', 'barbarian' and 'civilisation'.
Buy it: Amazon link
Easy-reading account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the contribution made by the mysterious Dr William Chester Minor to this Herculean task. It is all the more fascinating, and sad, given that Dr Minor carried out all his work from his cell in Broadmoor (another Victorian innovation, then, as now, Broadmoor was an "Asylum for the Criminally Insane") where he was paying a life sentence for murder.
Buy it: Amazon link
Excellent! Piers Morgan, showbiz columnist-turned-tabloid-editor, spills the beans on British current affairs between 1994 to 2004. Ignore the ego and the arrogance and read it; it's fascinating, fickle and full - *full* - of insider gossip.
Buy it: Amazon link
Set in 9th century China at the twilight of the Tang Dynasty and their Empire, Justin Hill's novel is a gem. It tells the tale of the doomed lives and loves of Minsiter Li, a Government Official from a powerful family, who buys as his concubine Little Flower/Lily, a beautiful and educated orphan from the northerm fringes of the Empire. When their love thwarted by pride, custom and family, Lily turns to poetry and becomes a courtesan to the rich and powerful.... so far, so clich
.... "or every girl's big book of trains".
Quite why the third alternative title doesn't make it onto the cover is a mystery, and an almost fatal one in my case is it's taken me 5 months to pick up this book, which was another ex-Wishlist item.
And the loss would have been mine.
It's had to explain why this is such a good book, and it's hard to work out if I liked it purely because of my own character and background. Just don't reject this book on the basis that it's a trainspotter's guide because it most definitely isn't. Ian Marchant knows his stuff when it comes to trains and all things train-related, but he's not an engine-spotting-list-ticker. Rather, he's a bohemian bloke who loves the railways and their role in British history - all the way from the first horse-drawn tracks to Network Rail, via Stephenson's rocket and the railway mania of the 1800s; Beeching and privatisation.
Parallel lines is part social history, part political commentary, part autobiography, in a style akin to Nick Hornby and Bill Bryson - but with less knowing cleverness, and more heartfelt passion.
Buy it: Amazon link
Bought for me by dad and Jean for Christmas 2004, this collection tells the real life stories of a range of 20th century chinese women, some of whom are living lives that sound, to a Western woman, like they are set centuries ago. I can't remember where I read the review that prompted me to add this book to my Wishlist, but I'm very glad that I did. In each chapter, radio presenter and journalist Xinran, tells us about the listener's life, and in each case highlights an issue that affects women in China, and elsewhere. In translation, the narrative sounds a little stilted, but the stories are hugely powerful, and provide an amazing insight into female chinese society and the changes China and her people have seen in the 20th century.
Buy it: Amazon link
A Christmas gift from TJBR, purchased from my Wishlist, this is John Simpson's earliest-written autobiography, and the last one for me to read to get up-to-date with with what's available in paperback. Just the thing for a holiday 'blockbuster', it makes me what to re-read the subsequent books where he revisits some of the narrative in this one, which covers his childhood and first marriage, both of which provide interesting backdrop to his the early days of his career.
In the later chapters, John Simpson moves on to talk about his various roles at the BBC, and the world events on which he reported - ranging from the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Gulf War and the massacres of Tiananmen Square, as well as some private travels, including the fascinating trip to the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan and an expedition up the Amazon to stay with the remote Ashaninica tribe.
Buy it: Amazon link
I can never decide whether I love or loathe books like this.... whichever, envy plays a large part! Whilst having spent almost 2 years backpacking might sound enough for some, I've not come close to spending the time that Louisa Waugh has done in 'living the dream'. After travelling east on the Trans-siberian express for a second time, she spent two years living and working in the Mongolian captial, Ulaanbatur, before heading out to the remote western province of Bayan-Olgii to work as an English teacher.
This book is Louisa Waugh's account of the 9 months she spent in and around the nomadic township of Tsengel (which means 'Delight' in Mongolian), home to Muslim Kazakhs, Mongol Halkhs and Altai Tuvans. In it, she tells of the people she met, the friends she made and the understanding she gained in this far flung part of the world, as well as providing marvellous descriptions of the drudgery and delights of daily life surrounded by the amazing beauty of the mountainous steppe.
More photos would have been good though, and don't let the whimsical title put you off!
Buy it: Amazon link
I suddenly unearthed a treasure trove of travelogues in the Barbican library, and this was the first one I tackled, purely on the basis that I'd just returned from Indian and could/should have some views of my own against which to judge Mark Tully's analysis.
That said, my week in northern India only allowed me the slightest exposure to Indian culture and customs, nothing on a par with Mark Tully's years of experience borne of living and working as a journalist there.
The book is a dry read, but the arguments are well put and are accompanied by anecdotes that illustate the issues and events under discussion, from corruption, to poverty, to belief.
I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to try to understand how India is today, how it got there, and what its options might be for the future. You don't have to visit to experience the frustration!
Buy it:Amazon link
I only managed to read this at the end of the Exodus trip from Delhi to Kathmandu, as I borrowed it from the better prepared Kirsty for the final few days and the journey home. In the end, it lasted well into the first week of my new job, and provided a fascinating read. I'm glad I've got another WD to hand; City of Djinns was well written and very educational, without being at all heavy.
My only wish is that I'd read it before getting to Delhi as the book provides historical and modern-day contexts for all the places we visited, and the city and its inhabitants as City of Djinns is part diary, part travelolgue, part historical synopsis drawn from William Dalrymple's time in Delhi.
Buy it: Amazon link
I've only recently discovered Gavin Young, but he's fast become one of my favourite "travel" writers. "Travel" because by and large he's not an explorer or a visitor passing through the places he writes about. Rather, he describes people and places that he has met during spells as a foreign correspondent, giving you a far deeper insight into all three.
From Sea to Shining Sea is the first of his books I've read where he does travel around, but the book does not suffer from the "brief glances from the moving train" approach. In it, Gavin Young focuses on a selection of places in the US which have drawn him due to their historical, literary or geographical significance. Starting in New York, he travels from east to west, from the eastern seaboard's whaling past, through Altanta and the Civil War, to the Alamo and San Antonio and the cession of Texas from Mexico to a Republic, to LA in the era of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye, ending up in the Yukon, drawn by Jack London's tales of the wilderness and the gold rush, and many more places, and people past and present, in between.
Buy it: Amazon link
The last of my holiday reads, although probably not the best for a nervous flyer to read on their way home (Trivandrum - Bahrain - Heathrow).... in fact, I only managed a few chapters before and between flights, and have been steadily albeit slowly working my way through the rest since I've been back.
There are a few occasions when the book could have done with a bit more editing - mainly parts where previous views or stories are repeated - but that is an extremely minor niggle as you get the benefit of Brian Keenan's eloquent prose, as he describes some of the details of the 4 years he was held hostage in Beiruit. He offers his recollections and interpretations of the behaviour of both his fellow hostages and his captors; some humourous, some violent and disturbing, always insightful.
It is amazing true story, and one which few people would want to be able to tell.
You should read it, even if you don't think you want to. It would be interesting, although unlikely, to read such a first hand account written by someone held in Guantanamo Bay.
Buy it: Amazon link
I wasn't too sure about reading a collection of travelogues whilst lazing on the beach in India - I thought that Gavin Young's collection might make me miss our more usual exploratory-type holidays. Fortunately, my fears proved unfulfilled. This collection provides insights into countries and peoples far and wide, over many years, and most of which were originally published as pieces in The Observer. For me, the section covering the 20 or so years Young spent in Vietnam, and his friendship with a vietnamese family in Hue was the most memorable - and the most heart-rending.
One of my favourite travel books and travel writers - and in looking up The Observer link, I've discovered he died in 2001.
Buy it: Amazon link
An impulse purchase from Fopp, which turned out to be an OK kinda read. Not amazing, and probably only worth reading if, like me (and Andrew Collins!), you did your growing up in the 70s.
Buy it: Amazon link
An inspired birthday present from Karen, read in a flash. I'd been put off from buying it by the later reivews, which emphasised the misogynic aspects of Afghan society. I'm glad Karen got it for me - it's a good read and provides insights into history, society, culture and personal relationships, told through tales from a family's life over the past 20 odd years. It's an uncomfortable read at times - but then the Khan clan live in a very different world from mine.
Buy it: Amazon link
A hardback Christmas treat for myself, but one that I've delayed to indulge in due to other reads, and it being hardback and so not easy commuter fayre. However, return flights to Belgrade plus the Belgrade-Novi Sad bus journey provided me with ample opportunity to get another dose of biography, history and politics Simpson-style.
Twenty plus years of reporting on foreign affairs, and Iraq in particular - JS reported on the Iran-Iraq war, on the chemical attack at Halabjah, on the first Gulf / Kuwait War in 1991 as well as the second - synthesized into a comprehensive account and analysis of Saddam, his regieme and his relationship with the West. Interspersed with the biography we get chunks of autobiography from JS, showing the all too human side of the roving reporter.
Fascintating and informative - buy it: Amazon link
Hot on the heels of John Simpson's A Mad World, My Masters, I've turned to a autobiography of another british TV/Radio journalist. Whilst a familiar name, John Sergeant didn't register as having quite the same high profile, which having read as far as I've got I'd say reflects the facts that (1) John Sergeant is a political reporter, whilst John Simpson is a foreign correspondent; and (2) the differences in their egos! It reads as a very personal autobiography, with a balance between personal and professional life that I suspect reflect the balanced individual himself.
Buy it: Amazon link
A Christmas present from TJBR and another good read from John Simpson, with tales of his adventures in lands afar and encounters with the good, the bad and the ugly of the 20th century. I particularly liked that way the stories were grouped by theme, rather than chronologically, and it's always fascinating to catch a glimpse behind the scenes of history.
Buy it: Amazon link
Having read a couple of other Geisha novels-masquerading-as-autobiographies, I was pleased to find a genuine autobiography of one of Japan's greatest geisha, and Mineko Iwasaki's book provides plenty of detail on the Willow World in the second half of the 20th century.
At times her narrative takes on an air of irritating superiority, particularly the sections where she berates clients who have unwittingly damaged her fine (and fabulously expensive) attire and accessories, well after the actual events have taken place. However, she is not one to hide her own shortcomings or those of the system in which she became one of the most successful geisha of all time; and that is not necessarily to have been expected given her upbringing in an almost entirely female environment, and an education that focussed on dance, the Arts and conversational skill to the exclusion of more academic subjects.
Buy it: Amazon link
This is the other roving reporter autobiography that I took to Chile with me, and reading it after Kate Adie's provided some interesting contrasts, and I enjoyed it just as much, although for different reasons. I'm not sure I'd enjoy meeting John Simpson, as he comes across as rather too despotic for my tastes, but then again, determination and self-assurance are two traits which I suspect are essential to success as a reporter, particularly one who frequently reports on wars and unrest around the world.
The subject matter of this third volume of John Simpson's autobiography is the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and the fall of Kabul. It's a fascinating read, taking you into the mechanics of journalism, and the workings of the BBC as well as giving you the political long view so often lacking in TV news reporting.
Buy it: Amazon link
One of my favourite books of the year.
I had to ration my reading as this was one of only 2 books I took to last me through 4 weeks travelling in Chile. It got me through the flights from London to Santiago (I'm not at my most relaxed at 36,000 ft), and a cold and rainy afternoon in Puerto Natales.
Kate Adie is a TV News Reporter I remember well from my teenage years - she always seems so cool, calm and collected in the most amazing situations - and her "From our own correspondant" programme on Radio 4 is one that I often find myself trying to organise my Saturday mornings around. In fact, I frequently find myself envying her and her job, which has taken her to so many far flung places and into many of the 20th century's key events. All the more so after reading this autobiography, learning more about her early years in the BBC, and of her encounters with politicians and world leaders - official and unofficial - over the past 4 decades.
Buy it: Amazon link
I cadged this from Phil after picking it up at his after finishing Ann Tyler ahead of schedule (aka without having another book with me to move on to for the morning commute - disaster!). A fascinating read, albeit rather dated. Still, most of the films William Goldman discusses are familiar blockbusters of yesteryear, many of which stand the test of time - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for example - and it is fascinating to learn about the history of their making, from the germ of the idea to the on-going success (or failure). And it is equally interesting to read about the role of the screenwriter, and the other job titles that appear in the ever-growing list of credits that roll at the end of films.
For me, the book could have lost the final section, where William Goldman talks you through creating and analysing a screenplay, but I can imagine that readers who do want to become screenwriters will find it a useful and probably unique section.
Buy it: Amazon link
Very readable novel, set in Hong Kong in the run up to the Handover in 1997. I've read a lot of Paul Theroux's travelogues, but this is the first novel of his I've tried. It proved to be very readable, although I've no idea how true to life it was.
Buy it: Amazon link
The tale of a northern Chinese girl growing up in a remote town, going to university in the south, and then starting her working life in Beijing in the late 1980s and the Tiannamen Square massacre. It reads as an autobiography, and maybe it is.
Buy it: Amazon link
This book is Mark Shand's tale of his walk along part the Brahmaputra river, which rises in the Himalayas and flows through Tibet before turning south into India and Bangladesh, where it flows out into the Bay of Bengal.
The tale takes you from the expedition's the genesis in a meeting with one of his explorer/adventurer heros, Charles Allen, to suffering altitude sickness in the Himalayas and 2 years of working relentlessly through British and Indian bureaucracy... and that's before he even starts his walk.
The epic is dented rather by the long Tibetan stretches of the river being made out of bounds to foreigners by the Chinese, but the tale changes tone and focus somewhat when the river walk does begin, high in the mountains of Assam, where Mark meets Bhaiti, who becomes his River Dog.
An enjoyable tale, with lots of characters and lovely photos in the centre section. Mark Shand does not mince his words or mask his emotions, particularly where bureaucrats or officials thwart his plans. At times he can come across as a rather arrogant, imperious Gentleman Traveller, but perhaps those are required characteristics if such travels in Asia are to succeed.
Buy it: Amazon link
Loaned to me by Lucy, with high praise, this autobiography of Alexandra Fuller's childhood in Africa has sat by my bedside gathering dust for a few months, on the twin grounds that I'd heard bits of it on Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, and I wasn't sure of the appeal of An African Childhood.
Having picked it up on my return from Bristol last night, I'm glad I didn't send it back to Paris unread, for it is proving a fascinating book, not least of all because 'Bobo' is just a little over a year older than I am. It is in the observing differences between our childhoods that whetted my appetite, but what makes this book all the more fascinating is that added to the tales of daily life are the influences of the political history of Zambia, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and southern Africa, from the perspective of a white girl/woman who 'could have been me', and yet whose life seems to come from another era.
Buy it: Amazon link
- A Journey Beyond The Great Wall -
Another traveller's tale recounting their adventures in the vastness of China that lies beyond Beijing. This time, it's a westerner (although one who seems to be able to converse and communicate to a sufficient degree for independent travel), and Stanley Stewart's route takes him by boat, train and bus from Shanghai to Taxila, Pakistan, following the Great Wall and the Silk Road, in a 20th century take on the fabled Journey To The West.
Fascinating, pleasantly unpatronising, a lovely final paragraph, and, if i'm honest, it's got the China-and-the-'Stans travel bug agitating again....
Buy it: Amazon link
This collection is written in the familiar style of Alistair Cook
Planning to start this on the tube home tonight - the blurb claims to offer "a first class introduction to contemporary China" - albeit pre-SARS.
Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed it! Read the review below....
Buy it: Amazon link
Epic adventure, irritating teller-cum-(wanna be) hero.
Finished it last night during insomnia spell.
Verdict: Haddock review
Buy it: Amazon link
Beyond Beijing in the mid 1980s
In all likelihood not to everyone's taste, this autobiography cum travelogue provides insights into life in the greater China, the 99.9% of the country which lies beyond Beijing, during the mid-1980s. Ma Jian's story takes place in the 3 years to 1986, when the Coal Miners were striking in the UK, Reagan was president in the US and Gorbachev was on his rise to power in the USSR, and with the Tiananmen square massacre still to come.
Ma Jian doesn't explicitly provide much by way of deep and meaningful perspective on himself as he describes the 3 years he spent walking the length and breadth of his country, most of it in search of himself, and some of it on the run from the authorities. But as you follow him on his long walk around China and his self, you travel through scenes which leave you with another insight into a man who can't find his place in the all pervasive system, be that political or religious.
Perhaps that is the main message of the book - that someone as apparently innocuous - to Western eyes at least - as Ma Jian, whose reaction is - usually - flight rather than fight, was regarded as enough of a threat to merit police surveillance and, in due course a police hunt in the farthest flung corners of China.
However my enjoyment really stemmed from the fact that Red Dust is a documentary, providing a first hand account of China in the mid-80s at the time when I was in my teens, gorwing up at B91 2DL in affluent suburban Solihull - an experience which contrasted greatly with Ma Jian's life of work units, official (and unofficial) documentation, vast waterways, open plains, rough and ready accommodation, ennui and enterprise.
Pot Luck Paul Theroux
Louis' dad isn't everyone's cup of tea, but this collection gives you a taster of Paul Theroux's travel writings from the years running up to Y2K.
Snapshots of the lives and lifestyles of people from all around the world, not only of the individuals Theroux encounters but also of the writer, his family and friends, including Bruce Chatwin.
With stories of sailing off Cape Cod, luxury cruising down the Yangtze a mere 4 years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, and surf-kayaking off Hawai'i's North Shore, there's a definite bias towards water-borne exploration.
Whether you are seeking inspiration for holiday destinations or, like me, feel the occasional need to relive travels of your own (or to undertake fresh ones, albeit on a vicarious basis), 'Fresh-Air Fiend' fits the bill.