A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush

by Eric Newby

Paperback, 1981

Status

Available

Call number

915.81

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Penguin (Non-Classics) (1981), Trade Paperback, 253 pages

Description

Eric Newby describes his travels in the mountains of Afghanistan. He has also written The Last Grain Race, Slowly Down the Ganges, Love and War in the Apennines and On the Shores of the Mediterranean.

Media reviews

Independent, UK

This classic trek from 1958 sees him blunder through the Near East and into Afghanisatn, through a rugged land of dangers and marvels where "we shoot people without permission" (plus ça change). In a gloriously improbable finale, he runs into Wilfred Thesiger himself. The epic voyager meets his

lighter-hearted heir – but Newby, for all comic gift, never loses for one dusty mountain mile his own"capacity for wonderment"

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User reviews

LibraryThing member patience_crabstick

A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby. Superb travel writing. Newby abruptly gave up his career in the fashion industry, in England in the 1950s, and went off on a mad hike through the mountains of Afghanistan, after taking a four-day hiking course in Wales. Funny stuff, although Newby,

unlike Bill Bryson and other popular travel writers of today, does not load his prose with funny commentary or metaphors. He describes his adventures--an appalling transaction with a Persian car mechanic, being detained for manslaughter somewhere in Armenia, the irritating qualities of the Nuristani tribes he encounters--with a spareness that leaves the reader to decide if the incident is supposed to be funny or tragic. I would love to travel in that part of the world--every account I've read about Afghanistan has made it seem compelling and gorgeous, but, obviously, it's not a tourist destination these days. Maybe within my lifetime. Also, this book has the best last line I've ever read, anywhere.

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LibraryThing member celephicus

Newby's best book? One of the canonical travel books I think. His later books were never quite up to the mark of this one. I always wonder what happened to his travel-companion Hugh, and even whether they ever talked to each other again. The final line where Thesiger, perhaps the last survivor of

the Victorian ideal of the Explorer, calls them a "pair of pansies" is sublime.

Sadly I don't own a first edition, I have the book club edition.

I have read nearly all Newby's work, but the only ones I re-read are Something Wholesale, which is mostly about his father, and "The Great Grain Race", see my review.

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LibraryThing member SeriousGrace

I think the most endearing aspect of A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is the fact that Eric Newby readily admits he had no idea what he was doing when he and a friend decided to explore the Nuristan mountain range in Afghanistan. With very little training and an unclear vision of what was in store,

Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush is little more than a witty, humorous journal. Yet, almost by default it offers intelligent, observant insight into Afghan cultures and terrains few Westerners have ever experienced. Newby begins his tale with the idea of exploring the Hindu Kush mountain range. Recruiting his friend Hugh, they "practice" climbing by scrambling up and down a rock face in Wales. There they learn the tools and of trade and suddenly they are experts. From there, with tongue-in-cheek humor, Newby delightfully journals their subsequent adventures in northeastern Afghanistan.

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LibraryThing member Daisydaisydaisy

I didn't get on with this at all and gave up reading halfway through. It was a reading group book, and I usually try to finish them even if I don't like it, but I seemed to be actively avoiding reading this one! It was a bit too "jolly hockeysticks" for me. Also the edition I was reading had

slightly fuzzy type and the maps weren't at all clear - if both of those had been better I might have made it further!

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LibraryThing member TheWasp

An enjoyable recount by Eric Newby of his first adventure as a mountain climber in the Hindu Kush.

LibraryThing member abealy

A wonderful travel adventure from the end of the golden age of exploration. Newby is best when he describes with humor and self-deprecation their woeful lack of credentials in the matter of exploration and mountain climbing. After four days of practice in the relative safety of Wales, Newby and his

companion Hugh Carless travel to Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush, attempt to climb the 20,000 ft Mir Samir and trek through Nuristan in northern Afghanistan. The fact that they accomplished all they did is a great testament to their courage and perhaps naive luck. I can't believe any such journey would be possible today.

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LibraryThing member Sandydog1

A self-deprecating fashion industry Brit (he's careful not to describe appropriate experience - he served in British Special Forces in WWII - this omission helps the story's charm), gathers up incomplete, inadequate provisions and goes on a fun little jaunt in vacation spots north of Kabul.

Who

knew Afghanistan could be so wonerfully droll...

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LibraryThing member AnnB2013

They just don't make 'em like Eric Newby any more. Possibly the funniest travel book ever.

LibraryThing member Matke

Funny but prejudiced, this is a fairly entertaining story about one of those nutty British guys who gets a crazy idea.
He decides to walk through some of the roughest terrain in the world, in Afghanistan. His attitude toward difficulties is great, but his attitude toward the people who lived there

was...condescending.
This book was just okay, and the ending was terribly rushed. Not really recommended.

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LibraryThing member soylentgreen23

Newby had been recommended to me by my brother's girlfriend, years ago, when I was paying them a visit and had taken to perusing their bookcase. It took me a while to get around to reading his work myself - was I put off by the name Eric? Perhaps, but that's unfair - and I'm very glad now of the

recommendation.

One thing that struck me here, as it has done elsewhere, is the travel writer's perfect recall. Newby is able to report long, fact-laden sentences, directly quoted by people who I doubt were speaking English at the time. It's something I remember being the case with Theroux as well. I can't do it - I end up fabricating something along the way. Likewise with his descriptions of the natural geography and geology of the places he sees - where I might talk of a massive rock, Newby is able to go on for two or three pages at a time, and yet it works so well. I suppose that is what separates the professionals (Newby et al) from the dilettantes (yours truly).

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LibraryThing member NickDuberley

All Newby's travel books are brilliant.

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