Customer Reviews

Departures & Arrivals

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This book is actually more about the bits in between an arrival and departure, and it is, as I have come to expect from this author, a very pleasant book that will no doubt give equal pleasure at a later rereading.

Travels from earliest memories...up to the bend and back of his home street in darkest Barnes in SW13... to even more foolhardy forays in Yemen, China and Russia, often by bicycle, raft and early `developing country' transport Eric, and his ever present companion Wanda, revel in his big, wide, wonderful world. Unlike the elderly lady he takes to see the view atop of her local mount, overlooking the Po Valley - which she had never before left - who exclaims;"Come'' grande il mondo!" and then insists on being taken straight home, Eric glories in his travel, arrivals and departures.

Extraordinary things always happen to Eric on his journeys, or, if they fail to materialize despite his prodding curiosity, there is always the fascination of history, or people to describe in rolling prose. All the narratives of the author please, and he added immeasurably to the genre of travel books with wisdom and sneaky, chuckling wit.

Or his wife Wanda tells him off and puts them firmly back on their crooked, always chaotic, and enjoyable paths!

In Departures And Arrivals, British writer Newby and world traveller Eric newby describes his latest travel adventures with a gift for irony and description: here his experiences in Calabria, with canal travels, and in Beijing capture the vivid peoples and personalities he encounters. An excellent armchair read.