I read Newby's, "The Last Grain Race" several years ago. Mother gave it to me as a Christmas present. Undoubtedly because I had been an enlisted sailor in steel ships, USN. After reading the book, I was enlarged by the realization that a sailor on a sailing ship was a man of a different sort from a technician on a modern naval vessel fo war. I was a technician along for the ride, while a sailor was a man who's life was hard and short, dependent on the stochastic variables of wind and sea. In Newby's autobiographical account, you'll learn what it once meant to be a seafaring man in the last of the sailing vessels in the late 1930's.

Having been thoroughly seduced by the writer's style, I was intrigued to learn that he had written other books. Among them, and one I hope to get as a present this Christmas, is described in the following review.

Botnst



A short walk in the Hindu Kush: by Eric Newby
Elaine Rati Kochar

(Elaine Rati Kochar successfully blends her traditional values and social responsibilities as a housewife with a streak for knowledge, creativity, social service and exploration. Elaine is a painter and a Bharatnatyam dancer. She is a keen trveler and she enjoys travelling and sightseeing most in India.)

While reading William Dalrymple I found out that he had been compared to Eric Newby, suggesting that he was almost as good. I found Newby's book on a dusty back shelf of a library. I expected the author to be an experienced mountaineer and explorer, accompanied by another equally experienced climber. Surprisingly both were relatively untried and amateur trekkers. Hugh Carless, a diplomat had been to the Hindu Kush earlier but not too far in.

Eric Newby was from the dress trade and gave up a tedious city job showing off the latest fashion designs to cantankerous clients. Within a short a time he and Hugh Carless, accompanied for a short time by Eric's wife in Turkey, set off to conquer a mountain. The mountain, Mir Samir is in Afghanistan. Both men took four days of training in mountain climbing in Wales. It was a crash course in the basics, totally inadequate as preparation for climbing to an altitude of 16000 and above!! Amazing! It would be unthinkable for any climber to go so unprepared and ill equipped!

Some of their gear was unsuitable for the terrain and climate. The days in the high, rocky regions were unbearably hot and the tent was for snow survival. Eric's boots did not fit and lacerated his feet! For anyone who has done a mile of walking, it is in comprehensible how he could have walked through Nuristan with feet in that condition! Full marks for tenacity and will power!

The food they picked up in the town was wholly inadequate and at one point of time got soaking wet and inedible. They didn't even carry drinking water!!! Because of having to drink water from dubious sources they all suffered from dysentery and were continually sick.

But all this is not what makes the book interesting. It is Eric's inimitable style that achieves that. Side splittingly funny in parts, it makes you raise your eyebrows in astonishment. It also opens up a part of the world rarely written about in the 50's.

Afghanistan turns out to be a rocky, inhospitable country with wondrously lush and fertile valleys hidden among the mountains. The people are curious and friendly in parts and childishly crooked and scheming in turn. Newby's prose never falters and the narrative has no heavy, tedious parts. It is wonderfully entertaining and racy. I was smiling all the time I wasn't laughing out loud!

And did they climb the mountain? Find out for yourself when you read "A short walk in the Hindu Kush".

Sounds like an interesting book, I'll have to check the library or Amazon. My maternal grandparents grew up in the Victorian era in England. As a kid I did not mess with them at all, but learned a tremendous amount from them. They were some tough folks that could get the job done. Whatever the job might be.

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone