But perhaps this novel was the first of that type, so I have to give some credit to Newby for creating the trope. Just a bit slow going is all. The”, “In the great court, surrounded by broken-down droshkies and the skeletons of German motor-buses, we spread our sleeping-bags on the oily ground beside our vehicle. 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. Welcome back. But the descriptions of the culture and people the author meets along the way are never boring. Here we reprint a passage from his classic book A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. 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. 489. Page 166 of the Picador edition of A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush ranks among the funniest things I've ever read. I first read this over 40 years ago and it may have been the book that got me interested in this genre. It has a nice balance of humor, dangerous thrills, and personal encounters with fascinating geography and peoples. A travel classic. A fabulous book. But they were British damn it :) And there in lies some of the problem for me. Entertaining with little lightning flashes of experience that seem to elucidate the human condition, both its wonders and its follies. In the Land of Giants: hunting monsters in the Hindu Kush Gabi Martnez. Paperback $ 16.75. 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 … Eric Newby is irrepressible in his aim to climb the mountains of Afghanistan, Embarking on his poorly planned expedition, with little relevant experience, he has no idea of what disasters await him in the hindu kush. It is very much of its time. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush 256. by Eric Newby | Editorial Reviews. Fraught with danger, the author, seems not to notice as he stays ahead of death by the narrowest of margins. Find books like A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush from the world’s largest community of readers. It should end in a new appreciation of place and culture for the reader, the edifying part. Newby's best known works include A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, The Last Grain Race, and Round Ireland in Low Gear. Just about everything that could go wrong did -- breakdowns, accidents, imprisonment, murder, thefts, bad food, wrong equipment, dysentery, and finally, exhaustion. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. A few days scrambling on the rocks in Wales, enchantingly chronicled here, were his sole preparation. This is the unbelievable tale of 2 Englishmen who try to make a first ascent of a 19,000 ft mountain in the 1950s. Postwar career. It seems like it took me an awfully long time to get through such a short book. The understatement, the self-ridicule, the delight in the foreignness of foreigners, the complete denial of any attempt to enlist the sympathies of his readers in the hardships he has capriciously invited; finally in his formal self-effacement in the presence of the specialist (with the essential reserve of unexpressed self-respect) which concludes, almost too abruptly, this beguiling narrative – in all these qualities Mr Newby has delighted the heart of a man whose travelling days are done and who sees, all too often, his countrymen represented abroad by other, new and (dammit) lower types. It was 1956, and Eric Newby was earning an improbable living in the chaotic family business of London haute couture. Plus there was quite a bit of very old British jargon that kept some sentences from making sense. They irritate each other, and bicker at times like two first-years in an Oxbridge hall, but in fact, both come from less predictable backgrounds and seem to be proving something to themselves as well as to us. I had searched the internet for the best travel book ever and this book showed up on almost every list. $18.83. It was 1956, and Eric Newby was earning an improbable living in the chaotic family business of London haute couture. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. I did, however, find myself laughing out loud several times throughout the entire book. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush 488. The journey to the peak is through harsh and remote wilderness near Afghanistan. Its main strength is Newbys ability to laugh at himself and their situation. 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. That's the entertainment half. And in his writing he has all the marks of his not entirely absurd antecedents. Free shipping. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Newby, Eric Paperback Book The Fast Free. 0 likes. Yet Newby's classic account of the adventure, The book jacket describes this as "laugh out loud funny" and while I was amused in a few places, I think a lot of the British humor flew right over my head (sadly). It was not mountaineering that attracted him; the Alps abound in opportunities for every exertion of that kind. Start by marking “A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Free shipping . Grovelling under the vehicle among the ants and young scorpions, fearful of losing our feet when the great American lorries roared past, we attained the feeling of comradeship that only comes in moments of adversity. The other factor that might have interfered with my enjoyment was my deep seated irritation with travel novels in which the authors are frustratingly ill-prepared and take seemingly ridiculously dangerous risks, which seems to be a classic theme of the genre. That strange, steeply mountainous region between Afghanistan, Anatolia, Northern India, and Nepal. Plus there was quite a bit of very old British jargon that kept some sentences from making sense. An improbable—though hilarious—foray into Afghanistan by two Brits in 1956. people who like travel literature, are interested in exotic cultures and lands and history. When Eric Newby, fashion industry worker and inexperienced hill walker, decided after 10 years in haute couture he needed a change he took 4 days training in Wales then walked the Hindu Kush. Having been written before political correctness, the descriptions are quite straightforward, like when they are hiring staff for the expedition, one of whom "had a broad, stupid face, like an old-fashioned prize-fighter, with a thick trunk-like nose and a deeply lined forehead with a wart on it." The ultimate amateur adventure story, everyone should read it. George Eric Newby CBE MC (6 December 1919 – 20 October 2006[1]) was an English travel author. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria.If you can improve it further, please do so.If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it. It was 1956, and Eric Newby was earning an improbable living in the chaotic family business of London haute couture. Perhaps explaining some of the ethnic and religious differences that still dominate Afghan politics, Newby tells that: "The Tajiks are the original Persian owners of the Afghan soil, conquered and dispossessed by the Pathans but still speaking Persian; agriculturalists, Sunnites, intense in their religion, a far more ancient people than the Hazaras, round-headed, flat-faced Mongols who were settled in Central Afghanistan by Genghis Khan in the fourteenth century in the region he himself had depopulated and converted to the Shiah faith in the eighteenth by Nader Shah's Persian army.". It has sold over 500,000 copies in paperback. This classic account of the author's climbing expedition to Mir Samir in Afghanistan in the 1950s is both informative and entertaining. The ultimate amateur adventure story, everyone should read it. 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