Book description
'You've had some pretty crazy ideas in your life, Newby, but this is
the craziest.' Grandmother Wanda Newby was exasperated after continuous
rain, snow, and gales that knocked from her bike. Twice.
To avoid other tourists, Eric Newby had decided that the depths of
winter would be the very best time to explore Ireland by mountain bike.
More astonishing still, he managed to persuade Wanda, his long-suffering
wife and life-long co-traveller, to accompany him - mainly, she
admitted, to 'keep him out of trouble'. Lashed by winter storms, fuelled
by Guinness and warmed by thermal underwear, their panniers laden with
antique books on Ireland, the elderly adventurers cycle the highways and
byways, encountering hospitable locals, swaying saints and ferocious dogs.
From the shores of Donegal to the holy mountains, Newby guides the
reader on a tale of mishap and magic, all in his own peculiar style of
humour and charm, relishing his never-ending curiosity of the world and
his insatiable quest for adventure. 'Funny, revealing and thoroughly
enjoyable' Irish Independent
'Another delightful book - and one, surely, without risk of imitation'
Sunday Times
'A relaxed and affectionate book' Irish Times
'Hilarious Gaelic gallimaufry put together by that prince among travel
writers, the literary conqueror of the Hindu Kush' Daily Telegraph
'His eternal curiosity in common humanity, his love of obscure facts
and random delving into byways of history, mean that he is always
entertaining. He carries his readers with him, effortlessly sharing his
own enthusiasm' Literary Review
'Although he deplores the increasing uniformity of travel, he writes
and travels with a sense of wonder that his 68 years have failed to
diminish' Scotsman Eric Newby was born in London in 1919. In 1938, he
joined the four-masted Finnish barque Moshulu as an apprentice and
sailed in the last Grain Race from Australia to Europe, by way of Cape
Horn. During World War II, he served in the Black Watch and the Special
Boat Section. In 1942, he was captured and remained a prisoner-of-war
until 1945. He subsequently married the girl who helped him to escape,
and for the next fifty years, his wife Wanda was at his side on many
adventures. After the war, he worked in the fashion business and book
publishing but always travelled on a grand scale, sometimes as the
Travel Editor for the Observer. He was made CBE in 1994 and was awarded
the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Guild of Travel Writers in
2001. Eric Newby died in 2006.
