Book description
In Where the Indus is Young , Dervla Murphy's indomitable will is
matched by that of four-footed Hallam and her six-year-old daughter
Rachel. Together they make a mockery of fear, trekking through the
awe-inspiring Karakorum mountains not only in the heart of winter, but
close to Pakistan's disputed border with Kashmir. They work their way
up beside the perilous gorge carved through the mountains by the
Indus, lodging with locals and eating, sleeping and bargaining with
the Balts, who farm one of the remotest regions on earth. Despite the
hardship, Dervla never forgets the point of travel, retaining
enthusiasm for her magnificent surroundings and using her sense of
humour to bring out the best in her hosts, who are often locked into
the melancholic mood of mid-winter.
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.
