Book info

• Title A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
• Author Eric Newby
• Year 1958
• Genre Travel

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.

Thoughts

This was an interesting book, written about the author’s explorations of Nuristan in the late 1950s. The writing was sublime, soft and gentle, observant but not overly detailed, and with a dry humour that pokes fun at almost everything without being offensive.

I didn’t think the journey itself was all that interesting - in fact, it annoyed me a bit that this just seemed like two men who should know better being underprepared and faffing about on a mountain. Everything seemed to go against them, and they didn’t actually achieve the goal they were aiming for.

Despite that, it’s still a good read, if only to see what adventuring was like sixty years ago.

Rating: 3 / 5