Tag Archives: travel writing

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Life at Full Tilt

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Edited by Ethel Crowley – Foreword by Colin Thubron ( Published by Eland)

“Few people, in any age, can have travelled a wider range of countries so arduously.” Colin Thubron, London 2023

The first book of Dervla Murphy’s that I read was her autobiography Wheels with Wheels. From the start I was gripped by her courage. An only child, born in 1931 in Lismore, Ireland, she had to leave school at the age of 14 to look after her invalid mother. She continued that duty until her mother died in 1962, and then she began to travel.

In this book Ethel Crowley has selected extracts from 24 of Dervla Murphy’s books, arranging them in decades dating from the 1930s to 2015, when she travelled to the Middle East.

Dervla Murphy went just about everywhere, and she never took the easy route anywhere, often preferring to travel by bicycle, or on foot, or with a mule. There was real hardship and there were unenviable lodgings. There were perilous crossings of mountains and rivers. There was danger and isolation, but somehow she just kept going, kept trusting that people would look after her and that all would be well.

“Attempts to control the future seem needlessly to limit its possibilities. If this view were general, anarchy would overtake the world. But one hopes there is room for a minority of non-planners.”

In an extract selected for this book from Wheels within Wheels by Dervla Murphy

Thankfully all was well, or became so, and despite suffering everything from attempted robberies and rapes, to many bone breaks, including a fractured pelvis, and any number of illnesses, she did return from her travels with her notebooks full of observations and conversations to then pass on through her books – the books and her body bearing witness to all that she did.

The privilege of reading Life at Full Tilt is that it selects extracts from each of her books. Until reading this selection I had no idea that Dervla Murphy had travelled to, and written about, places such as Northern Ireland, and Bradford and Birmingham, as well as Cameroon, and Cuba, Afghanistan, Siberia and beyond. I found it fascinating to hear her voice in each, and to see the places through her eyes.

For me, the other pleasure of Life at Full Tilt, are the pages at the beginning and end, all written by those who knew Dervla Murphy well. I loved hearing more about her life and who she was.

Now I have finished reading I am sad to have to put the book down. I shall miss being in the company of such a truly extraordinary traveller, researcher, writer, survivor and genuine voice. The good news is that all the books I have caught glimpses of are out there waiting to be read.

My thanks to Eland for sending me this copy of Life at Full Tilt.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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The Narrow Smile by Peter Mayne

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I’ve loved every page of this book, a review copy from Eland.

I have no special knowledge of the North-West Frontier, nor of the author, Peter Mayne, but I do enjoy travel – the kind of travel that takes you somewhere slowly. This book is full of that sort of travel, and I’ve been able to join in without setting foot outside the front door.

The journey itself is not an easy one. Peter Mayne is travelling around the North-West Frontier visiting old friends from the various tribes and embassies in the region, and exploring, or trying to explore, the question of Pashtunistan. It is a subject as elusive as the permits he needs, but even while waiting for them to be granted he drags us around with him, trailing us from heat to shade, from sweaty office to sweaty room, chatting with strangers, officials, and staff, and round and round with himself. Then suddenly he’s off, back to the mountains, and dining with soldiers.

The journey and the writing are paired perfectly. The first almost impossible, the other light as air as it lifts us from the fan-whirring heat of a place, to the languid shade of afternoon tea in the garden of a British diplomat, or on to the bouncing squash of bodies in a crowded bus. And its these bodies, these characters, and their words that catch the violence of life in their lands – the feuds, the friendships, the frustrations – the layers revealed with the narrowest of smiles.

It’s quite a journey.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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Postcard from back-at-home

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The coronation stone at Rørvig – erected by Frederik IX to mark the place where the Vikings crowned their kings

We were in Denmark for just four days, each of them packed as tight as a suitcase that won’t quite close.

Looking back now I see each section of our trip in detail. The weather was wonderful and we had the huge luxury of being guests – chauffered around and shown so much. I took a fair few photographs, and at the end of every day I explored a little more on the internet, checking, for each blog post, on what I thought I’d understood.

Now home, the memories are still ringing around my head, like bells from another land. I see the bright white of the sun-filled church standing by the stones of Gorm and his son. Then there is the cold mist of Thyborøn around the Sea War Museum in Jutland, followed by the blossom and green of the garden at Sanderumgaard. And finally, the simple crown carved into the top of the Viking coronation stone at Rørvig. In between there are colours, and meals, and the homes and faces of family and friends.

It was a crowded happy time, and to keep the memories close for a little longer I thought I’d post a few more of the photographs from the trip on Instagram (georgieknaggs) – one a day, for a week at least. Meanwhile, the blog will get back to the story. I hope to have another section of that up tomorrow.

Thanks for your company, and thanks to everyone who showed us so much of Denmark.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023