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.

'Funny, revealing and thoroughly enjoyable' Irish Independent 'Another delightful book - and one, surely, without risk of imitation' Sunday Times 'A relaxed and affectionate book' Irish Times 'Hilarious Gaelic gallimaufry put together by that prince among travel writers, the literary conqueror of the Hindu Kush' Daily Telegraph 'His eternal curiosity in common humanity, his love of obscure facts and random delving into byways of history, mean that he is always entertaining. He carries his readers with him, effortlessly sharing his own enthusiasm' Literary Review 'Although he deplores the increasing uniformity of travel, he writes and travels with a sense of wonder that his 68 years have failed to diminish' Scotsman

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.

'Funny, revealing and thoroughly enjoyable' Irish Independent 'Another delightful book - and one, surely, without risk of imitation' Sunday Times 'A relaxed and affectionate book' Irish Times 'Hilarious Gaelic gallimaufry put together by that prince among travel writers, the literary conqueror of the Hindu Kush' Daily Telegraph 'His eternal curiosity in common humanity, his love of obscure facts and random delving into byways of history, mean that he is always entertaining. He carries his readers with him, effortlessly sharing his own enthusiasm' Literary Review 'Although he deplores the increasing uniformity of travel, he writes and travels with a sense of wonder that his 68 years have failed to diminish' Scotsman