A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
Written by Eric Newby
Narrated by James Bryce
4/5
()
About this audiobook
A classic of travel writing, ‘A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush’ is Eric Newby’s iconic account of his journey through one of the most remote and beautiful wildernesses on earth.
It was 1956, and Eric Newby was earning an improbable living in the chaotic family business of London haute couture. Pining for adventure, Newby sent his friend Hugh Carless the now-famous cable – CAN YOU TRAVEL NURISTAN JUNE? – setting in motion a legendary journey from Mayfair to Afghanistan, and the mountains of the Hindu Kush, north-east of Kabul. Inexperienced and ill prepared (their preparations involved nothing more than some tips from a Welsh waitress), the amateurish rogues embark on a month of adventure and hardship in one of the most beautiful wildernesses on earth – a journey that adventurers with more experience and sense may never have undertaken. With good humour, sharp wit and keen observation, the charming narrative style of ‘A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush’ would soon crystallise Newby's reputation as one of the greatest travel writers of all time.
One of the greatest travel classics from one of Britain's best-loved travel writers, this edition includes new photographs, an epilogue from Newby's travelling companion, Hugh Carless, and a prologue from one of Newby's greatest proponents, Evelyn Waugh.
Eric Newby
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.
More audiobooks from Eric Newby
A Small Place in Italy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Slowly Down the Ganges Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
Related audiobooks
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road to Oxiana Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great R Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Patagonian Express Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walking the Nile Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marsh Arabs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short Ride in the Jungle: The Ho Chi Minh Trail by Motorcycle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Footnotes: A Journey Round Britain in the Company of Great Writers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Arabian Sands Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On the Plain of Snakes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Van of One's Own: A Winter Sojourn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Africa: A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Figures in a Landscape Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Dry Season: In the Footsteps of Mary Kingsley Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Slow Trains to Venice: A Love Letter to Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood River: A Journey to Africa's broken Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Chip Shop in Poznań: My Unlikely Year in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed and the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Miles from Nowhere: A Round the World Bicycle Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing the Devil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Deep South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Overland: Singapore to London: The Return Journey of the Iconic Land Rover Expedition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hit the Road, Jac!: Seven Years, Twenty Countries, No Plan Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Walk Sleep Repeat Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride Through Europe and the Middle East Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Essays & Travelogues For You
Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Search of Perfumes: A Lifetime Journey to the Source of Nature’s Scents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infused: Adventures in Tea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Empty Places: A Journey Through Blank Spots on the American Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Round Here and Over Yonder: A Front Porch Travel Guide by Two Progressive Hillbillies (Yes, that’s a thing.) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Alone: Walking the Pacific Crest Trail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler's Journey Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Abundance: Narrative Essays Old and New Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Garlic, Mint, and Sweet Basil: Essays on Marseilles, Mediterranean Cuisine, and Noir Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Own Magic: A Reappearing Act Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read Nature: An Expert's Guide to Discovering the Outdoors You've Never Noticed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Geography of Genius: A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5World Travel: An Irreverent Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Places in Between Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Goodbye to a River: A Narrative Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Putin's Footsteps: Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel With A Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
18 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Funny 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A 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...
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They just don't make 'em like Eric Newby any more. Possibly the funniest travel book ever.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All Newby's travel books are brilliant.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Funny 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An enjoyable recount by Eric Newby of his first adventure as a mountain climber in the Hindu Kush.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I 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!