Book description
After her epic journey from Ireland to India by bicycle in 1963,
Dervla Murphy immersed herself in the life of the sub-continent,
working for six months in an orphanage for Tibetan children in
Northern India. She fell in love with the 'Tiblets' - the cheerful,
uncomplaining, independent and affectionate children of the new
Tibet-in-exile - but she also managed to explore India's Tibetan
frontier, leaving the reader panting in her wake. Alongside her
enchantment, Dervla became a perceptive witness to the realities of
aid work: the corruption, smug piety and power struggles of the
bureaucrats, and the dangerous, long-term side effects on the
recipients - cultural enfeeblement and dependency. Tibetan Foothold
not only confirmed Dervla's status as a traveller, but also revealed
her to be a truly independent voice and an acute observer of politics
and society.
Dervla Murphy was born on 28 November 1931 of parents whose
families were both settled in Dublin as far back as can be traced. Her
grandfather and most of his family were involved in the Irish
Republican movement. Her father was appointed Waterford County
Librarian in 1930 after three years internment in Wormwood Scrubs
prison and seven years at the Sorbonne. Her mother was invalided by
arthritis when Dervla was one year old. She was educated at the
Ursuline Convent in Waterford until she was fourteen, when, because of
the wartime shortage of servants, she left to keep house for her
father and to nurse her mother. Dervla did this for sixteen years with
occasional breaks bicycling on the Continent. Her mother's death left
her free to go farther afield and in 1963 she cycled to India. There
she worked with Tibetan refugee children before returning home after a
year to write her first two books. Full Tilt was published in 1965 and
over twenty other travel books have followed. She still lives in
County Waterford. Her daughter, Rachel, and three granddaughters live
in Italy and join Dervla on her travels when possible.
