Departures and Arrivals Book

Eric Newby may have been entitled to his pension for over a decade, but he is still globetrotting to his heart's content. In Departures and Arrivals, he brings us up to date on his latest world travels. Naturally, these no longer involve him navigating the length of the world's holiest river (Slowly Down the Ganges) or attempting to climb mountains with no previous experience (A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush)--but nevertheless, Newby'e endless curiosity for the world around him makes this book a worthy addition to his canon. Beginning with his childhood memories of a Barnes that is long dead, he moves to evocations of the Orient Express, a lovely story from Calabria and a religious festival in Rajahstan which clearly moved him greatly. We also learn that Newby "discovered" the Meridian line, 2 degrees West, seven years before Nicholas Crane (Two Degrees West), when he sets off to cycle its length in 1991. In fact, this prescience, combined with his observant piece on Yemen which seems almost to foreshadow the great success of Tim Macintosh-Smith's Yemen: Travels in Dictionary Land", goes to show that although Newby may be bowing gracefully to a younger generation of travel writers, he can still show them a thing or two. -- Toby GreenRead More