Recently in Other places Category
Daniel Metcalfe's 2004 journey in search of "the lost peoples of Central Asia".
Leaving Iran he travelled through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, winding up with the Kalash in the NWFP valleys of Pakistan.
A good read if you're thinking of doing either of these trips or similar:
My appetite for these Wild Frontiers expeditions has been (re)whetted:
- Kyrgyzstan & Tajikistan: High Pamir Explorer
- Tajikistan & Afghanistan: Wakhan Corridor Trek
- Tajikistan & Afghanistan: Wakhan Pamir Adventure
Amazon.co.uk link: Out of Steppe - Daniel Metcalfe
"In the minutes before sleep, a shadowy melancholy descends: the bewilderment when something long awaited has gone."
A very personal account of Colin Thubron's pilgrimage to Mount Kailas; a slighter, but deeper, volume than usual.
Read it if you're going to do the kora: you'll gain an understanding not simply of the physical demands, but also the spiritual significance of this mountain for Buddhists, Hindus, Jain and Bon. I wish I had.
It's also made me want to reread A Stranger in Tibet: The Adventures of a Zen Monk, Scott Berry's account of the life and travels of Kawaguchi Ekai, a Japanese zen monk who travelled to Tibet in the opening years of the 20th century. Kawaguchi is mentioned a lot in Colin Thubron's account, and he (Kawaguchi) also lived in Marpha, Nepal, for a while - we passed his house on the Annapurna Circuit.
Amazon.co.uk link: To A Mountain In Tibet - Colin Thubron
One of the events I went to as part of the British Museum's exhibition on Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World was the screening of the 1979 documentary Khyber. The director, Andre Singer, recommended Cables from Kabul, and I treated myself to the hard cover edition.
It's a great book. Sherard Cowper-Coles was British Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2007 to 2009, and the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2009 to 2010 - roles that put him at the heart of Britain's diplomatic missions to AfPak during the War in Afghanistan during 2007 - 2010. In these memoirs he shares his first hand experience of the political and military developments of the time, and provides insights into key players, British, American and Afghan.
Amazon.co.uk link: Cables from Kabul: The Inside Story of the West's Afghanistan Campaign - Sherard Cowper-Coles
19 August 2011: All the more recommended, in light of today's attack on the British Council office in Kabul.
Phil bought this for me from Daunts as holiday reading for the Croatia-Berlin-Paris mini tour, in anticipation of a trek in Nepal later this year.
Not surprisingly the chapter on Everest particularly appealed. As it turned out, the account of Mallory's expeditions to Everest resonated strongly as last year's Himalayan Journey meant that I had followed in some of his footsteps through Tibet - and this section about mountain light rang particularly true:
There is the Midas light,the rich yellow light which spills lengthways across the mountains, turning everything it touches to gold. And there is the light which falls at the end of a mountain day, and unifies the landscape with a single texture. This light possesses a gentle clarity, and brings with it implications of tranquility, integrity, immanence. page 214
Covering a range of histories - geology, alpine travel, travel writing, tourism, mountaineering, Everest - plus poetry, psychology and philosophy, it is a fascinating read, although in parts the "testing out" as articles was a little too obvious. But the main theme of the book is why we are drawn to the mountains, and it is a book to read if this snippet rings true for you....
Returning to earth after being in the mountains - stepping back out of the wardrobe - can be a disorienting experience. Like Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy returning from Narnia, you expect everything to have changed. You half-expect the first people you see to grip you by the elbow and ask you if you are all right, to say You've been away for years. But usually no one notices that you've been gone at all. And the experiences you have had are largely incommunicable to those who were not there. I have often felt as through I were a stranger re-entering my country after years abroad, not yet adjusted to my return, and bearing experiences beyond speech. page 204
Amazon.co.uk link: Mountains of the Mind: a History of a Fascination - Robert Macfarlane
Twin, entwined tales of a falling in love in Cairo: Iris and Xan's wartime romance, and grand daughter Ruby and Ashraf's more modern encounter 60 years later.
Definitely not chick lit.
I"ll be looking out for more books by Rosie Thomas.
Amazon.co.uk link: Iris and Ruby - Rosie Thomas
A great idea, but patchily delivered. I ended most of the very short chapters feeling we'd only discovered a few bare facts.
Maybe that's the point.
Bought in Hereford in 2004; finally finished in Walton on the Naze in May 2011 - possibly the longest it's taken me to read a book, ever.
Perfect for dipping into, it's a collection travel writings and musings. Some were by people I've read, others by names that are new to me, even if the book was already 20 years old when I bought it.
Amazon.co.uk link: Granta 10: Travel Writing - Bill Buford (Editor)
"Apples are from Kazakhstan."
A lovely, readable, fascinating, harrowing book*, written in 2007 and drawing much upon the author's conversations with President Nursultan Nazarbayev who saw Kazakhstan through the transition from Soviet Socialist Republic (exploited as a land for gulags, Kolkhoz and nuclear weapons testing) to an oil/gas-rich independent nation with hope for the future.
Amazon.co.uk link: In Search of Kazakhstan: The Land That Disappeared - Christopher Robbins
* even if my copy - a library book - featured annoying pencil annotations. It's not your book, so don't write in it.
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
Based in Beijing, and covering the period between 2001 and 2007, Peter Hessler has drawn on his six years as the holder of a Chinese driving licence to write Country Driving, whose three sections - road trip, village and factory - combine to form one fascinating book revealing the day to day workings and impact of politics, economy, society in China in the early 21st century.
One of the best books I've read for a while, as the speedy read attests.
PS Don't pay too much attention to the Chris Patten quote they've put on the cover of the paperback. I finished this book in tears.
Amazon.co.uk: Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory - Peter Hessler
A novel about growing up in Libya under Gadaffi. It's been on my bookshelf since I asked for it as a pre-Libya trip birthday present. Events in Egypt spurred me on. Worth reading for a sense of how life under a North African dictatorship is (was?) like if you don't toe the line.
amazon.co.uk link: In The Country Of Men - Hisham Matar
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.
A slim volume, reflecting a short return visit to Central Asia in 1989, after the thaw in East-West relations but before the breakup of the Soviet Union.
The account feels flimsy compared to To The Frontier, reflecting a more disparate journey in a region that has a disjointed history and imported layers of culture.
Beautifully written and enjoyable none-the-less, and now a historical account in itself.
Apples in the Snow: Journey to Samarkand - Geoffrey Moorhouse
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
A number of people I've met on my travels have raved about this book, so I finally got around to borrowing it from the library. It's very good, but no better than many other travelogues I've read.
Blook River is Daily Telegraph journalist Tim Butcher's account of his 2004 attempt to follow in the footsteps of Stanley (of "Dr Livingstone I presume?" fame). Having managed to reach the Congo, we follow Tim Butcher as he travels 1000s of miles from Lake Tanganyika to the River Congo and downriver to Muanda where it deluges into the Atlantic Ocean. En route there are adventures - some more hair raising than others - and Tim Butcher's accounts of the history of the Congo, the men who 'discovered' and 'explored' it, and those men and women who manage to live in that failed state today.
Amazon.co.uk link: Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart - Tim Butcher
Fascinating account of the author's travels - geographical and historical, cultural and emotional - around Albania in 1996 during a brief window of (relative) safety in between the opening up of the country following the fall of Enver Hoxha and the riots/elections in 1997.
To quote from Dr M. Scott's Amazon review, "Read it with an open mind and a weary heart for a nation which has been battered and tortured beyond belief."
Amazon.co.uk link: The Accursed Mountains: Journeys In Albania - Robert Carver
A fantastic read, following in Geoffrey Moorhouse's footsteps through Pakistan in 1983, from Karachi on the coast, via Sind and Baluchistan, to Peshawar and the Khyber Pass and onwards through the other-worldiness of the high Hindu Kush. A book to have taken with me on my Hindu Kush Adventure. A book to read to understand the reality and history of life on Pakistan's frontiers.
Amazon.co.uk link: To The Frontier - Geoffrey Moorhouse
I started this yonks ago, before my trip to Libya I think, but had to return it to the library half read. Finally getting it out again over Christmas, and the second half was as fascinating as the first. Philip Marsden writes about his travels to and through the Caucasus in search of spirit-wrestlers (a Russian religious sect exiled to the Steppe), but mainly meeting nth generation descendants of Russian dissidents transported to the frontier of Empire/Union and left to fend for themselves, or not. Not all of those descendants sounds like they've going to survive much longer following the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of despair and alcoholism.
But that makes it sounds like a depressing book, and it's not. It's a fascinating account of another of those parts of the world that always seem to form the fringes of Empire, and yet have much to offer in their own right. Indeed, increasingly, this is an area that demands our attention - conflict in Georgia, breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia (did you know that a whacking great mountain range divides North and South Ossetia?) ... not to mention oil, gas and US foreign policy.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Spirit Wrestlers: A Russian Odyssey
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
Bought second hand yonks ago (so long ago I can't even recall where), this relatively slim travelogue has sat languishing on my bookshelf alongside other books about places and eras I wished I'd been able to visit and record myself.
On the face of Mountains of Heaven looks as though it's going to be an annoying account, in the style of Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, of a scion of the British Empire's boy's own adventure through the lands on the edge of empires.
But it's not. Half comprised of Charles Howard-Bury own edited version of his travel journals, with the remainder of the editing carried out by Marian Keane, Charles Howard-Bury does come across as an explorer-adventurer but one who is interested in the people, culture and wild life of the region; particularly the huntin', shootin' and fishin' opportunities on offer.
A man after my own "circular route" heart, his outbound journey took him from London to Russian Omsk, on a "cruise" along the river Irtish to Semipalatinsk and via the post roads of Siberia and the steppe, crossing from the Russian side to the Chinese side of the Tian Shan. He returned to London by way of Russian Turkestan and the Silk Road, taking in Tashkent, Samarkand (fascinating accounts of the Registan, Bibi Khanum mosque and Shah Zinda mausoleum) and Bokhara before crossing the Caspian, the Caucasus and finally the Black Sea before taking the train home from Constantinople.
He's in Central Asia at a tipping point. The British Empire is still going strong to the south, the pre-revolutionary Russian Tsars have expanded into the 'Stans of Central Asia and the nomadic Kazakh and Kyrgyz inhabitants of the steppe are shifting eastwards, into modern day Xinjiang only a year after the demise of the Qing dynasty and the province acceding in name to the Republic of China.
Less than 100 years later, my Central Asia experience was vastly different.
Isabella Bird's A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains and The Yangtze Valley and Beyond are still sitting on my bookshelf of travelogues to read, but Mountains of Heaven has finally (finally!) prompted me to pick up Tim Macintosh-Smith's The Hall of a Thousand Columns, which is proving to be another fantastic read. It's 1349 and Ibn Battuta is just about to head off to China.....
Amazon.co.uk link: Mountains of Heaven: Travel in the Tian Shan Mountains, 1913 - Charles Howard-Bury, edited by Marian Keaney
A fantastic book, featuring two of my most favourite places on the planet: Fife and the Northern Areas of Pakistan, and the first book on Pakistan written by a woman that I've found or read.
In the new (2002) edition of her book, Kathleen Jamie takes her earlier account of her time living with the people of Gilgit and adds new first and last chapters, featuring (first) her encounter with a group of Pakistani men on a peace march through Scotland post-9/11, and (last) her return to remote Gilgit and the resumption of the friendships made a decade earlier.
It's beautifully written, about a beautiful part of the world, and provides a rare opportunity to catch glimpses into the personal lives of Pakistani women.
Amazon.co.uk link: Among Muslims: Meetings at the frontiers of Pakistan - Kathleen Jamie
The latest instalment in Alexander McCall Smith's No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive is a gentle cautionary tale about the grass being greener on the other side, and the power of forgiveness. But slowly told... Perhaps I've read too many tales featuring Mma Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni and the apprentices of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors. Or maybe I've just grown more jaded!
Amazon.co.uk link: The Good Husband of Zebra Drive - Alexander McCall Smith
The book of the TV documentaries, except told mainly by David Vincent rather than frontman Dan. Based on visits to historical treasures and sites in the most war torn countries of the Middle East and Central Asia, it's dated now - but for me that made it all the more interesting. We learn of the local resistance to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, both sides of the story of the looting of the National Museum in Iraq, the vulnerability of ancient sites in Iraq and the vicious and longstanding tugs of war over Israel's religious sites.
Amazon.co.uk link: Under Fire: People, Places and Treasure in Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel - Dan Cruickshank and David Vincent
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:
It took me a while to decide to borrow this book from Barbican library. I'm not sure why, but I thought that it would be either trite or relentlessly harrowing. It turned out to be neither. It's not all sunlight and roses, in fact there are a number of hard events to read about, but there's happiness in there too. Highly recommended, particularly if you want to know more about a woman's experience of life in Afghanistan in the 21st century.
Amazon.co.uk link: A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
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
Perfect reading for my Central Asia Overland trip. Colin Thubron always manages to combine knowledge and experience with a real feel for the people he meets and the places he visits on his travels.
Maybe one to read again, now that I'm back (01 Feb 2009....).
Amazon.co.uk link: The Lost Heart of Asia - Colin Thubron
Brilliant book about people and places Jason Elliot encountered over the course of several visits to/around Iran. Made me all nostalgic, but glad I'd saved something special for the flight out to Beijing and the start of my Central Asia Overland tour.
Read it if you're considering going to Iran, if you've been, or if you're thinking "Why would I ever want to go there?".
Amazon.co.uk link: Mirrors of the Unseen - Jason Elliot
A fascinating account of the Armenian people - their history, language and lands.
Philip Marsden's personal quest to understand the Armenian dispora takes him from the Near/Middle Eastern lands of Turkey, Lebanon and Syria, along to the Eastern European lands of the Black Sea and finally into the Caucasus and modern-day Armenia.
Sounds a dry as dust? It isn't.
Amazon.co.uk: The Crossing Place: Journey Among the Armenians - Philip Marsden
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 gift from Jeannette, Native English for Nederlanders is pitched as "A personal, cultural and grammatical guide", written by Ronald van de Krol - an American of Dutch descent with a Dutch wife and family and who has lived and worked in The Netherlands for decades. His book highlights the perils and pitfalls of the English language for native Dutch speakers, and is as a native English speaker, it offers a fascinating perspective on my own language, and insight into the words, phrases and styles that can cause problems for my Dutch colleagues. Topics range from Deference, hierarchy and humour, American or British? to English as a code.
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
A lovely anthology of short stories on the theme of "nowhere", published by Lonely Planet.
Lovely though the collection is, I do have a couple of gripes:
- Most of the pieces are written by professional travel writers, which was a bit disappointing as I'm sure most travellers have tales to tell of their own personal visits to nowhere. And the resounding theme was that one person's nowhere is the centre of another person's universe: not exactly an earth shattering conclusion.
- Why are most of the travelogues written by Americans? Not that I have anything against Americans travelling - in my book, travel can only broaden the mind - but reading the biographies almost all of the contributors were born and/or based in the States, and I know the Americans can't hold the monopoly on independent travel. Perhaps they do have a monopoly on travel magazine article writing, or self conscious self discovery.
Still, a highly readable collection - here's my list of the most memorable six:
- The most disheartening: On the trail
- The one that won in the wanderlust stakes: A picture of a village
- And one that didn't: Postcard from the Edge
- The one that made me well up: Meeting Echo
- The one that triggered nostalgia: North of Perth
- The one I'll remember the most: A visit to Kanasankatan - you need to be reading aloud to appreciate it, and perhaps save that approach for a rapid reread.
Amazon.co.uk: Tales from Nowhere - Don George (Ed)
Sue bought me this for Christmas - an excellent choice from my Amazon Wishlist, even if, as Sue said, it was "about the most unchristmassy title" there.
In Bad Lands, Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler, spurred on to look beyond and behind the "Axis of Evil" label applied by certain powerful Americans, visits nine of the world's less, how shall we put it, 'popular' destinations: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.
His reactions range from the disappointed (Cuba) to openly cynical (North Korea) and are neatly drawn together in his chapter titled The Evil Meter TM. Mine ranged from the "Glad I don't ever envisage needing to go there" (Saudi Arabia) to the "One day, I must get there" (Afghanistan, Libya and North Korea). The only caveat relating to this book, which I've been recommending left, right and centre, is the slight contrivance in including countries on the basis of tyrants of times past - particularly Albania and Iraq. With that forewarning, read it - I'll even lend you my copy provided you promise to give it back.....
Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil - Tony Wheeler
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
David Malouf tells the story of one Australian man, Digger Keen, and the people in his life.
Digger's story starts with his mother's arrival from England at the start of the 20th century. Having established a home and a store at Keen's Crossing, children follow, but only Digger and his elder, "simple" sister Jenny survive to adulthood.
Digger's experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war in Malaya and Thailand introduce us to the tales' other key character, Vic Curran - a chap of conflicting characteristics whose life post war bring wealth and happiness, albeit built on slightly dodgy foundations. Having formed during their harsh PoW experience, and not always understood by either of them, the mateship between these two men is strong enough to endure the passing decades and the divergent paths their lives take.
It is a long novel, and the pace is slow - but this slow motion journey allows you to see and appreciate so much more about the characters and the times, places and events they live through. I loved every minute of it.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Great World - David Malouf
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
If you have any interest in the people, politics and history of Pakistan/Afghanistan/Iran/Iraq, or indeed of "Persian Rugs", then Christopher Kremmer's account of a decade long love affair with the region, its rugs and its people is a must-read.
A fantastic book - and a perfect read on long bus journey around Iran, with a bunch of people that included some fellow travellers to the Hindu Kush and the Khyber Pass.
Amazon.co.uk link: The Carpet Wars - Christopher Kremmer
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
Unlike recent reads, I really enjoyed this Aurelio Zen mystery, although the man himself didn't make an appearance until well past page 40. Set in the independent minded mountain borderlands between Italy and Switzerland, this Zen outing provides a darker by more credible plot stetching back 30 years, and Zen's sleuthing reveals relationships and careers based on lies and deceit. Zen seems at his best when he's an outsider, and when Michale Dibdin keeps Zen's personal life playing a remote second fiddle to his detective work and police force politicking.
Amazon.co.uk link: Medusa - Michael Dibdin
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
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
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
Luckily Katie had brought in Tears of the Giraffe as well as No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency for me to borrow, so I was able to carry on reading about the sleuthing and romancing of Mma. Ramotswe, Bostwana's only lady private eye. In this, the second novel in the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith again creates a cast and a plot that balance the good and the bad of Botswana - ranging from fostering orphans to solving the long-ago murder of an idealistic young american to out-witting lazy and dishonest house-keepers.
Precious Ramotswe is a good woman, and in Alexander McCall Smith's novels (so far at least) decency, kindness, optimism and common sense win out.
Buy it: Amazon link
Lent to me by Katie Carter, I raced through No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency in one cool, wet Bank Holiday Saturday spent in the caravan at Walton-on-the-Naze.
Like many others (I'm sure), I'd picked up the first of Alexander McCall Smith's tales featuring ("starring", surely?) Precious Ramotswe many a time, in the library, at the airport, in bookshops... but I'd never actually bought it - the blurb just didn't sound enticing enough.
My mistake! Yes, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency reads like a gentle, calm tale, but it's one that carries many a sting: death and abandonment, murder and witchcraft; but Mma. Ramotswe and her merry men and women steer a safe, thoughtful and overwhelmingly positive path through it all to the happiness and contentment you can't but help feel they deserve.
A modern day Aesop's fable - I'm amazed this book hasn't got more Amazon reviews.
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
The first of my post-holiday reading (so watch the rate of consumption drop off!), and I decided to continue the travel theme. I've long been interested in the life, times and travels of Ibn Battutah, but I was put off by the rather dry academic texts which were all I could find....... until I discovered Tim Mackintosh-Smith's tales his own 20th century travels in the footsteps of this travel-bug from Tangiers.
Starting from IB's Moroccan homeland, in the far west of the arabian, muslim lands, Tim follows his trail to Mecca, with a short excursion to the Crimea. This sidetrip within the then muslim world made for interesting reading as H and I head off to Yalta at the end of September. In particular it highlighted the fact that the Crimea spent a substantial chunk of time as a Khanate, having been settled by a segment of the Mongol Hordes that converted to Islam. Not what you expect of part of the Ukraine....
Fascinating stuff, told with human insight by Yemen-based Tim Mackintosh-Smith. I'm very glad I've got Norton Rose's leaving gift, Hall of a Thousand Columns: Hindustan to Malabar with Ibn Battutah , ready and waiting on the bookshelf to provide coverage of further voyages, ever eastwards.
Buy it:
Amazon link
I thought that I might find this heavy going, but after the froth and insubstantial fare of The Colour of Heaven I felt in need of something a bit meatier.
And Christian Tyler provided that in his (her?) history and analysis of Xinjiang, the region of steppe, desert and mountain that sits as the buffer between China and the Central Asian republics, and which now is becoming increasingly dominated by Han Chinese at the expense of the Uighur people - whose language is Turkic and religion is Islam.
A really stimulating and easy to digest read, on a topic which has made me all the more determined to make that trip from Beijing to Kashgar, and if possible onwards along the Silk Route to the West. In fact, this journey, perhaps?
Buy it: Amazon link
Finished this off this morning, after starting it last weekend - it's been sitting on the bookshelf in the Gyford Family caravan ever since I've had the joy to go there. A gem of a travel book - partly because I'd not appreciated how inhabited Siberia is, partly because the region is so vast, partly because of the heavy-handed impact relatively recent history has had on the long-standing cultures and societies that had developed there, and partly because Colin Thubron makes the effort to engage and to be engaging as he travels through Siberia eastwards from Russia to the Pacific, mostly by train, but also by bus and car, boat and aeroplane.
Having been busy satisfying my desire to visit Central Asia via litery stand-ins, these tales from the lands to the north of the 'Stans, Mongolia and China show just how artifical political borders are for the societies that have always lived there, and yet how intrusive, restrictive and destructive the political and powerful can be. The book is full of fascinating facts, and a cast of characters whose lifestories post-Thubron I'd love to learn.
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
Monica Whitlock is/was the BBC's Central Asian correspondent throughout the 1990s, and in this book she explains the region's historical, social and political background from the turn of the 19th/20th century through to the early years of the 21st century, a 100+ years that saw external forces that changed the area from post-Ottoman Khan/Caliph-ates, to Soviet Republics to Independent states.... even though the cultural, social and religious ties that determine political events in the regions are largely based in tribal groupings that have existed for centuries.
Monica Whitlock provides Western readers with an explanation not only of the 'Stans of Central Asia with which we are familiar through news reports, but also background to the rise and fall of the Taleban in Afghanistan and an insight into the melting pot of peoples, tribes and cultures that fled to Afghanistan, before, during and after the Soviet era.
A fascinating and rewarding book for anyone who wants a better understanding of Central Asia - the people of the region, their histories, religions, politics and societies. It will serve you well for past, present and future of this important and misunderstood region,
Buy it: Amazon link
It took me a while to get into this after the easy reading served up by Sue Grafton. Mind you, there is quite a contrast between 1980s California and 19th century Syria...
In the Grandfather's Tale, we hear the story, told by a mother to her children, of her grandfather's lifelong quest to be re-united with his mother left behind in the central Asian country of Dagestan when father and son travel to Damascus.
I'm no expert on arabian fiction, but the story telling seems classicially arabian, with a new chapter each night a bit like the princess in 1001 Nights. The book is not long, and it was an easy way to learn more about the common history and society of central asia and the middle east, which have shared so much for so long. It is clear that although Dagestan is many weeks travel away from Damascus, the common culture and religion remove any barriers that might exist. You also learn about Imperial Russia's invasion of the Caucasus, two centuries before the current strife in Chechnya, which is surely not unrelated.
Whilst Islam and pilgrimmage are ever present in the book, it is a backdrop to a muslim society with does not demonstrate any elements of the Axis of Evil. Away from the struggles for independence, the world we see is peaceful and content - it is only really the modern world that equates the region with militant, fundamentalist Islam. I can't help thinking that there must be many mirrored parallels between the relationship between Middle East and West in the 20th and 21st centuries, and the same relationship during the centuries of Christianity's Crusades.
That said, it's not a dry, deliberately educational novel. The story is of a boy's love for his family, and the mother he left behind aged 10.
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 tried to get into this, but the traumas of the new job meant that this travelogue just didn't hit the right spot for a relaxing bed time read - the main factors conspiring against it both stem from its being written in the ?1930s? - the narrative style and the relaince on physical geography descriptions are both hard to get to grips with.
I'll try again sometime when I'm more relaxed.
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
Bought in readiness for my trip from Delhi to Kathmandu, courtesy of Exodus (and my savings...), this travel guide was an excellent resource for the first few days of the trip (Delhi, Jaipur, Agra / Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri). In fact, it covered everything until we left Tundla Junction on the train for Allahabad.
The information was up-to-date, well structured and presented, and it was easy to find the cities and places we visited.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another pre-trip purchase, I opted for the Lonely Planet's guide to Nepal over the Rough Guide's mainly on the basis that the LP was published more recently, and so should be more up-to-date. Given the curtailment of our trip, and in particular the fact that we didn't get to Pokhara, I didn't really get to test out the book, but the background information and maps fpr Kathmandu and the places we explored in the Kathmandu valley were excellent.... and I'm certainly hanging onto my copy in anticipation of a return the Nepal, in more peaceful times.
Buy it: Amazon link
Another book about a "westerner"'s (albeit that Richard Loseby hails from New Zealand) travels in and impressions of Afghanistan, but Blue Is the Colour of Heaven is a million miles away from Asne Seierstad's The Bookseller of Kabul.
Following a childhood dream, Richard Loseby's travels took him to Iran and Iraq before managing to meet up with one of the many Mujahedeen and persuading them to take him across the border and into the west of Afghanistan. From then on, he found himself passed from group to group and village to village travelling by jeep, horse and on foot, and finally making an illegal crossing over the border into Pakistan. A far cry from Kabul, and a fascinating account, with good photos of people and places that news reports make and made sound altogether different and less likeable.
Buy it: Amazon link
And looking at Amazon, I see Richard Loseby went back in 2002 to try to trace some of the Afghans who made such a deep impression on him. Looking for the Afghan is now on my Amazon wishlist!
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
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
Stanley Stewart tells of his travels from London to Dadal in Outer Mongolia (and Ghengis Khan's birthplace) by way of Istanbul, Sevastapol, Volvograd, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Olgii, Qaraqorum and Ulan Batur. Starting off by boat, moving on to train and jeep, but predominantly on horseback, he travels in the footsteps of William of Rubruck, a 13th century franciscan friar who travelled west to the court of the emperor of the Mongol Horde, the infamous Genghis Khan.
But the book is much more than the journey of a 13th century friar told by a 21st century travel writer. As well as evocative descriptions of the steppe, Stanley Stewart provides insights and understanding of the worlds of Central Asia past and present, and the people, infamous and less well known, who populate(d) them.
Recommended.
Buy it: Amazon link
As the number 48 bus drew up alongside Tescos on Bishopsgate, Jason Elliot ended his second visit to Afghanistan, weeping by the side of the railway tracks in Pashawar. I've raced through this book that tells the tales of his two trips to Afghanistan, separated by 10 years, and many changes both in his life and for the people of the country he comea across as loving so much.
The book describes the adventures and trials of travelling to Afghanistan and around the worn torn country, which comes across as more of a collection of ethnic groupings than a nation. We meet the Afghans and Europeans Jason encounters during his trips, and he makes no bones of the physical and emotional hardship he faces. Throughout the book he shares the things he learns and his impressions of the things he sees. Although a million miles from the time Hazel and I spent in Laos, some of the stories brought a smile of nostalgia - negotiating for transport and cramming 10 people, and their possessions into a space designed for 4.
Having read the book, I am caught between the ever-present desire to visit places and people that put my current London lifestyle into sharp focus, and the knolwedge that now is still not the time for a female westerner to explore Afghanistan. Hopefully one day, that will change.
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
09 Jan: Just started this travelogue of Colin Thubron's visit to China in 1986 - after China had re-opened its doors to the West, but before Tiannamen Square. Good so far.....
... and finally finished it in March. Not that it wasn't a good read, I just hit one of those patches where you don't really get into anything. Still, with The Mapmakers having snuck in and revived my reading appetite, I rattled through this during commutes, and moved on to John Simpson.
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
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
... planning for my 4 weeks travelling in Chile with Hazel. 33 days to go. I can't wait - I've really had enough of my projects right now, the takeover one in particular. If it wasn't for Phil, I honestly think I'd be pondering heading off for longer.
None of which has *anything* to do with reading the Rough Guide!! I've spent some of this evening mapping the transport routes south of Puerto Montt using Phil's Omnigraffle - the Mac equivalent of Visio. It all looks increasingly enticing, but I can't spot a way of getting between Coiahaique/Puerta Aisen and Punta Arenas/Puerto Natales and Tierra del Fuego. I really wish the guide books would show transport routes on a single map....
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
- 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
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
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.