Round Ireland in Low Gear (Penguin Travel Library) [Mass Market Paperback]

Eric Newby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995 | Series: Penguin Travel Library

'You've had some pretty crazy ideas in your life, Newby, but this is the craziest.' Grandmother Wanda Newby was exasperated after continuous rain, snow, and gales that knocked from her bike. Twice. To avoid other tourists, Eric Newby had decided that the depths of winter would be the very best time to explore Ireland by mountain bike. More astonishing still, he managed to persuade Wanda, his long-suffering wife and life-long co-traveller, to accompany him - mainly, she admitted, to 'keep him out of trouble'. Lashed by winter storms, fuelled by Guinness and warmed by thermal underwear, their panniers laden with antique books on Ireland, the elderly adventurers cycle the highways and byways, encountering hospitable locals, swaying saints and ferocious dogs. From the shores of Donegal to the holy mountains, Newby guides the reader on a tale of mishap and magic, all in his own peculiar style of humour and charm, relishing his never-ending curiosity of the world and his insatiable quest for adventure.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Touring Ireland by bicycle in the winter is a daunting prospect even for the most seasoned backpackers, but Newby and his wife Wanda weathered it with good humor and resilience. The author of such classics of travel literature as A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and Slowly Down the Ganges takes the armchair traveler with him as he and his companion contend with misleading signposts, lonely roads, torrential rain, gale-force winds and unhelpful natives who describe any destination as "up the road a bit" although it may be circular miles away. As a result, the Newbys fall upon many culturally significant points by absolute chance. Trips to remote castles, holy wells and splendid ruins in the west of Ireland are enlivened by lashings of Guinness and tea, and by the often antic behavior of the locals met in omnipresent pubs. The Newbys, who live in England, returned to Ireland in the summer, when travelers are more expansively welcomed and more places are open, but it is their winter tour that captures the essence of the country and its delightfully idiosyncratic populace. Illustrations.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Veteran travel writer Newby reports on four treks through parts of Irelandmostly by bicyclewith his wife Wanda, in the foulest weather. His expectations were made realistic by memories of much time spent there in the Sixties, so that his caustic comments, about the bad food, general dilapidation, boredom, and dotty natives, do not come from a disillusioned romantic. Despite the drawbacks of their travels, the account offers humor, too, and the couple also come up with a book's worth of holy wells, gutted castles, moving statues of the Virginall that makes Ireland distinct. Laurence Hull, Cannon Memorial Lib., Concord, N.C.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140095888
• ISBN-13: 978-0140095883
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,989,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, funny, great book, October 20, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Round Ireland in Low Gear (Hardcover)

Newby still is a wonderful travel writer. he's funny, stubborn, typically English. After you've red this book you can't wait to go to Ireland (only not in february)

5.0 out of 5 stars On yer bike..., July 29, 2011

By 

John the Reader "John" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Round Ireland In Low Gear (Picador Books) (Paperback)

Read a review that complained - among other criticisms - that Eric had `lifted' great chunks of his narrative about touring Ireland from guide books. Even that he "admitted and acknowledged it" in the book. Now, apart from Eric Newby using citations correctly when he does quote from other works, there is no such confession of plagiarism in the book's footnotes. In fact running several likely paragraphs through the teacher's plagiarism website my son often uses revealed only a reference to one touring guide book, and that one Eric had co-authored anyway! So the author's narrative is as original as ever, and is delightfully sprinkled with Wanda's usual put-downs and `back-to-earth' asides.

And Ireland and its climate of course, offered Wanda Newby plenty of opportunities for those biting wifely comments, especially while being toured on bicycles! In winter, with overloaded panniers and chancing to luck and B&Bs for a bed at night, and Pubs or remote country-stores for meals.

Eric was perhaps rather "asking for it" with this idea. The resulting chaotic and riotous trip makes for a humorous romp through the Dingles and bogs in the near-continuous `soft mists' of Ireland, supported by the usual Newby need to give the reader the information and history of what the author(s) discover, see, experience and visit. The book is thoroughly enjoyable and is as tempting a portrait of Ireland as Pete McCarthy's "McCarthy's Bar" and, yes, it is as informative as any Bord Failte official touring-guide.

On yer bike says Eric!

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Oddly Flat, March 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Round Ireland in Low Gear (Hardcover)

I slogged my way through half of this book before I gave up. (My usual threshold is 50 pages) Eric & Wanda Newby cycle through Ireland in winter and are suprised/perturbed by the weather (?!!).

Mr. Newby is stangely self-centered. The book is a catalog of their travails with little comment on anyone they meet. I assume that he thought this would be humorous and entertaining, but after awhile I wanted him to shut up about himself and go home or get on with describing Ireland. When he does touch on history the descriptive passages seem to be read wholesale out of various guidebooks, which Newby acknowledges and feel like an add on instead of woven into their narrative. There are a few wonderful pages of landscape description but only enough to rate two stars and far too few to justify 298 pages.

I would not recommend this book. Instead read any of the late Thomas Flanagan's three novels about Ireland, The year of the French, The Tenants of Time or The End of the Hunt. Even Ray Bradbury's Green Shadows, White Whale (about living in Ireland while writing the screenplay for John Huston's film of Moby Dick.)