Round Ireland in Low Gear

by Eric Newby

Overview

'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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780007508204
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/21/2013
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishers
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

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.

Eric Newby was born in London in 1919. During World War II, he served in the Special Boat Section and was captured. He married the girl who helped him to escape, and for the next 50 years she was at his side on many adventures.

After the war, he worked in the fashion business and book publishing but travelled on a grand scale, sometimes as the Travel Editor for the Observer. He was made CBE and awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Guild of Travel Writers. He died in 2006.

Editorial Reviews

Touring Ireland by bicycle in the winter is a daunting prospect even for the most seasoned backpackers, but Newby and his wife Wanda weathered it with good humor and resilience. The author of such classics of travel literature as A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and Slowly Down the Ganges takes the armchair traveler with him as he and his companion contend with misleading signposts, lonely roads, torrential rain, gale-force winds and unhelpful natives who describe any destination as ``up the road a bit'' although it may be circular miles away. As a result, the Newbys fall upon many culturally significant points by absolute chance. Trips to remote castles, holy wells and splendid ruins in the west of Ireland are enlivened by lashings of Guinness and tea, and by the often antic behavior of the locals met in omnipresent pubs. The Newbys, who live in England, returned to Ireland in the summer, when travelers are more expansively welcomed and more places are open, but it is their winter tour that captures the essence of the country and its delightfully idiosyncratic populace. Illustrations. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Veteran travel writer Newby reports on four treks through parts of Irelandmostly by bicyclewith his wife Wanda, in the foulest weather. His expectations were made realistic by memories of much time spent there in the Sixties, so that his caustic comments, about the bad food, general dilapidation, boredom, and dotty natives, do not come from a disillusioned romantic. Despite the drawbacks of their travels, the account offers humor, too, and the couple also come up with a book's worth of holy wells, gutted castles, moving statues of the Virginall that makes Ireland distinct. Laurence Hull, Cannon Memorial Lib., Concord, N.C.

Library Journal