A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

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After three years at the FCO in London, then as head of chancery at Budapest, there followed a sabbatical year in the department of politics at Glasgow University. In 1967-70, Carless was posted as consul general to Luanda, Angola. In 1970-73, while serving as press counsellor in Bonn, he improved the German he had learned at Sherborne and accompanied the prime minister, Edward Heath, on a helicopter tour of Bavaria's baroque churches. From this launch point comes a perfect example of Newby’s deft skills in capturing characters with a flurry of impressions and metaphors. Her is his first sight of a pushy female buyer from New York City in the process of disrupting company operations with her histrionics and scehemes: a b Chwascinski, Boleslaw (1966). "The Exploration of the Hindu Kush" (PDF). Alpine Journal: 199–214. Indeed, he was twice taken prisoner, and told the story of his recapture - "a very disagreeable experience" - in what many regard as his finest book, Love and War in the Apennines (1971), a superb reconstruction of how at the height of the guerrilla warfare against the Germans in Italy, he met Wanda, the girl he returned to find when the war was over and whom he subsequently married. Although A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958) is the comic masterpiece Newby will be remembered by, Love and War revealed another side to what on the surface was an uncomplicated nature, a compelling tenderness and compassion. There are passages of great depth, quite beyond the range of ordinary travel writing. urn:lcp:shortwalkinhindu00eric_0:epub:61fcce03-2a36-495b-8adb-914566f30566 Extramarc OhioLINK Library Catalog Foldoutcount 0 Identifier shortwalkinhindu00eric_0 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t8v99cm1c Isbn 0140095756

Curiously, the famed explored Wilfred Thesiger, author of classic travel books like Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs, makes an unexpected cameo in the final chapter of A Short Walk as the amateurish Newby and Carless come upon his caravan. Thesiger serves as a final counterpoint–the final foil of sorts–to illustrate how unprepared and inept Newby and Carless were throughout their journey. Indeed, Thesiger calls them “a couple of pansies” in the final line of the book for inflating their air-beds (had they been carrying air-beds this entire time?). Gutcher, Lianne (5 February 2017). "Following Eric Newby's footsteps in the Hindu Kush". Wanderlust Travel Magazine . Retrieved 20 February 2018.

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His style of writing is like building a straight road, and every now and then build a kink in it, then continue to build the straight road, and add another kink at a random spot, then keep building the straight road, and so on. The start of this memoir was particularly fun. We join Newby amid the chaos of his company preparing for an upcoming big fashion show, including usable models of impossible dresses for the runway and catalogues. In the middle of this mayhem, Newby suddenly reports sending a cable to his friend Hugh Carless at his job with the State Department in Rio de Janeiro:. So here we have two pretentious ill prepared dandies floundering around the mountain, looking for a way to the top, enduring all sorts of rough demands, bullying their way along the trial.

The most successful travel writer of his generation. It's impossible to read this book without laughing aloud' Observer Carless is survived by his wife and by Ronnie, the elder of their two sons; the younger, Roger, predeceased him. The "Hindu Kush" is the western part of the Himalayan Construct at Central Asia and the "top of the world." (Everest, K2 and similar record-breakers lie farther east). We Americans don't use that term so much, but consider that the Khyber Pass is part of the Hindu Kush. Hugh comes across as this mysterious, aloof, travel partner whom Newby is able to portray with gut wrenching humor. Part of the success of the book is how they play off each other.

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a b c Frater, Alexander (29 October 2006). "Eric Newby | 'I remember the hum of excitement he created' ". The Guardian . Retrieved 20 February 2018. When we finished we gave out chocolate to the watchers, but it was like attempting to feed the five thousand without the aid of a miracle.

Eric Newby must have been aware of the curtain being drawn on mountain adventures in written form, so he structured his book in very different way. Instead of presenting himself and his partner Hugh Carless as mountain conquering heroes, he honestly depicts themselves for what they really were - two self-indulgent clueless men who impose themselves on locals in a poor nation. They are bullying their way to be dragged up steep mountain valleys close to the high point of their fancy - a mountain top they have not a slight chance of reaching. The account of their adventures written in this ironic self-deprecating way is like a breath of fresh air in the oxygen and imagination deprived atmosphere of mountain literature. A classic of travel writing, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is Eric Newby’s iconic account of his journey through one of the most remote and beautiful wildernesses on earth.John waxes lyrical about Balkan venture". Southern Reporter. 19 November 2015. Archived from the original on 16 February 2018 . Retrieved 16 February 2018. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2012-06-20 17:25:23 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA155314 Boxid_2 CH112101 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Harmondsworth, Middlesex Donor George, Edward Mace (23 October 2006). "Idiosyncratic travel writer from another age, and author of the classic A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 April 2013. I had the sensation of emerging from a country that would continue to exist more or less unchanged whatever disasters overtook the rest of mankind."