India in Slow Motion – Mark Tully

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

City of Djinns – William Dalrymple

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

From Sea to Shining Sea: Present-day Journey into America’s Past – Gavin Young

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

An Evil Cradling – Brian Keenan

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

Worlds Apart – Gavin Young

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