No comments about Eels With Dill Sauce: Memories of an Eccentric Childhood.

No comments about Pearls of Childhood (Lythway Large Print Series).

5 comments about Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle.

1. This is an amazing book, by a wonderful author. I would highly recommend reading it.



2. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Murphy's humor, tenacity and bravery are awe inspiring. She's attacked by wolves (or possibly wild dogs), wakes up in a tent after going to sleep out in the open, fends off an attempted rapist and has many other thrilling adventures. In one instance, when there are nefarious characters about, she is advised to booby trap her inn bedroom's doorway with empty bottles. In her journal, she calmly notes that emptying bottles is the one thing she's really good at.
   
   I couldn't help feeling sad while reading this book. In 1965, when this book was published, most people were probably unfamiliar places like Kabul and Jalalabad. Now, of course, in the wake of the post-9/11 bombing of Afghanistan, Kabul is a household word. Turns out, that city was once breathtakingly beautiful, as well as the country around it. Murphy's trek takes her through Afghanistan at a time when the USSR and the US were vying for control of this country. The Russians were busy providing electricity and importing goods, while the Americans seemed to approach this ancient country with the intent to raze the traditional culture to the ground and replace it with a modern one. One wonders if, if both countries had never meddled with Afghanistan, there might never have been the Taliban? In any event, this book takes the reader back to a truly relevant experience of the not-so distant past.



3. It was by accident I discovered this book, but how fortunate it was! Murphy did not just ride a bicycle from Ireland to India, impressive in itself, but she lived and laughed and played with the Prince's and Peasants she met through out her journey. Her descriptions of the people she meets and the ancient lands she cross are simple and magical.

   Some of her experiences seem to belong to fairy tales, other's remind's one of Arabian Nights, and at other times, it seemed Murphy was whisked into Tolkien's land of Middle Earth with fierce and gallant warriors on horseback.

   I will quote a couple of passages which highlight her sense of humor and observation.

   "...But it was worth it all to rise gradually from that fertile, warm valley to the still, cold splendour of the snow-line, where the highest peaks of the Hindu Kush crowd the horizon in every direction and one begins to understand why some people believe that gods live on mountain tops."

   "...when suddenly I came on the most unexpected sight-a playing field complete with twenty-two youths and a soccer ball. I know very little about soccer, but enough to know this is how it is not played. No one ever moved about trotting speed, no one ever tried to tackle anyone else, the referee never used his whistle, the ball was never headed and the two goalies sat crosslegged between the posts most of the time, looking abstracted. The real excitement from a spectator's point of view was caused by the fact that one side of the field had a sheer drop of 200 feet, so that the main object of all the players was to keep the ball from going into the ravine rather than to kick it between the posts."




4. I first read this book in the sixties in grade school. I bought the reissued edition, rediscovering it by coincidence. Ms. Murphy's journey in the early sixties is, if anything, more fascinating to read today in light of the changes in the Middle East since she travelled there. Her independence and cheerful acceptance of different cultures is refreshing. This book was written prior to the 'me' decade, and while intensely personal, lacks the self-preoccupation that more recent writers practice.

   Additionally, unlike so many bicycle travelogues, this book doesn't focus on the author's bicycle! The focus remains on the journey, which renders it excellent reading for all, not just bicyclists.

   This is a timeless read and one that can be revisited with pleasure.




5. What a find! I'm amazed Dervla Murphy is not much better known. She has such an appealing vigor and zeal for adventure, combined with an acute eye for cultural observation and a rich capacity for description. Dervla takes one of the most audacious trips I've ever heard of, and undergoes some of the most harrowing and arduous of trials with non-showoff-y courage, such as when three heavy objects that turn out to be wolves fling themselves at her on a dark deserted road in the Balkans, or she is awakened in the middle of the night to find a "scantily dressed Kurd" standing over her bed. (In both instances her pocket pistol dispatched the dilemma without further ado.) Not only are these accounts riproaring, but she so warmly and affectionately describes the so-called "undeveloped" cultures she grows to know as she passes through remote stretches of Afganistan and Pakistan, that she quite awakens a First World reader to the narrowness of our outlook.

No comments about Practice What You Preach (Lythway Large Print Series).

No comments about Childhood Memories: In Aid of Action Research.

5 comments about Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets.

1. One of my college history professor's once told me that a secret in international affairs means that it is something you only tell one person at a time. The perfect example of "secrets between friends" is FDR and Winston Churchill. They kept secrets from everyone, their staff, the people the led, and even their own families. However, they had few secrets with each other. Thus David Stafford's book "Men of Secrets" is a fitting title for the special relationship between two of the greatest leaders of all time.
   
   Stafford traces a very good outline of the secret services during WWII and how both FDR and Churchill played an intricate role in creating and developing both nation's intelligence services. Colorful characters abound, see anything relating to "Wild" Bill Donovan, in FDR's burgeoning spyring and in Churchill's the dashing Ian Flemming (author the James Bond novels).
   
   What I found most interesting about the book is the relationship between FDR and Churchill. There are many conflicts of personality and political ideals of the two leaders. For example, FDR championed the freedom of British India; yet ordered Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Similarly, Churchill espoused civil liberties in England while attempting to crush rebellions in Ireland.
   
   In conclusion, Stafford provides a great overview and introduction into the world of espionage during WWII. He also gives extraordinary insight into the minds of FDR and Churchill. Arguably, FDR and Churchill had profound affect on the course of WWII and the secret they had an upper hand in the struggle.



2. Very informative, but not "a good read". I enjoyed "Franklin and Winston" much more.



3. I really enjoyed this book, not because I enjoy reading about FDR all that much, but because it gives so much new information about how he prosecuted the war -- and because it does the same for Churchill, one of my most favorite flawed heroes. The author makes many points about what each knew, but would not tell the other, how at times both men knew that the other knew, but withheld, information, etc., and how they played their parts (and one another) in the delicate diplomatic dance in light of these things.

   While admiring much about FDR's service to America and the world in WW2, I have a general antipathy to FDR's character and the way he did some things; but I do give him credit for having known how to move the American people by degrees, almost imperceptibly when that was necessary, into position to crush the Nazis, and this book reveals more about how he accomplished this. His foresight, diplomacy, and preparations surely shortened the war and saved untold lives. Having Churchill woven in as an equal on the world stage and in relation to FDR gave it a very savory counterpoise.




4. In the beginning of the war, Roosevelt sensed that Churchill even before he became Prime Minister would be important to the war effort. As time went on these men united by a fear of Hitler these men became friends as well as comrades in arms. This book explores there relationship though a rather unique perspective their intelligence departments. It explores how they got their intelligence and what they did with the knowledge that they gained from it. Despite their friendship the used it to advance the agenda of what they wanted for their own countries. At times their intelligence departments actually came into conflict as they both had different hopes and ambitions. As the war progressed these difference became more important.

   I found the book very easy to read. Full of information that although I am a WW2 fanatic I have never seen before. I can recommend this book if you want to learn about the relationship of between these two men.




5. An enjoyable account of the circumstances that brought the two men together, and the relationship that they forged.

   Often political friendships form out of necessity and mutual self interest. And that is obvious in this case.

   But the fact that the two most remarkable and influential men (in a positive sense) were to forge such an important relationship makes for great reading.

No comments about The True Story of Ah Q.

1 comments about All Things Considered (Large Print Edition).

1. G. K. Chesterton is well known as a novelist, essayist, storyteller, poet, philosopher, theologian, historian, artist, and critic. He's less well-known as a journalist these days, yet all evidence indicates that he viewed his work for the various newspapers as his primary raison-de-etre. Therefore anyone interested in exploring the works of this colossal genius should include a sampling of his newspaper columns along with all of his other brilliant books.
   
   "All Things Considered" brings together about thirty columns that Chesterton wrote for the London Daily News in the years before World War I. There's no theme here; as the title suggests, this is a hodgepodge that wanders over everything imaginable. The only unifying thread is high quality.
   
   Chesterton writes about politics. In an essay on canvassing, he ponders some unusual double standards. We mere mortals cannot even offer our fellow citizens food for their vote. Politicians, on the other hand, can allow bribes to run into the stratosphere. We also can't threaten each other. The MPs, however, can threaten the downfall of civilization. Lukring behind this apparent hypocricy is the apparent lunacy of expecting the power-hungry to be the most moral voluntarily, even as the crack down on the rest of us.
   
   Chesterton writes about daily annoyances. While on vacation, he learns that his beloved home at Battersea has been flooded. Far from despairing, he sees it as a chance to look at that home in a new light. Could it be that our daily lives have grown so boring and monotonous that we barely see the things around us at all? Maybe a forced change of scenery is the only thing that can make us look at daily life anew.
   
   Chesterton writes about literature. He ponders a copy of The Eatansville Gazette, a newspaper that's supposed to exist only within the fictional world of Dickens' "Pickwick Papers". Moreover, the imaginary rag was a vile and repulsive publication; why would anyone want to drag it into reality? It seems that two distinct towns are vying to be recognized as the model for Eatansville. In doing so, Chesterton notes, they are trivializing the meaning of the book.
   
   There's lots more considered in "All Things Considered". But while every essay here is amusing and almost everyone is a masterpiece, the selections in this book are by no means higher quality that average for Chesterton's career. Pondering that fact, you may well decide that you have to track down all 4,000 of Chesterton's newspaper columns the minute you finish this little selection.

No comments about A Lighter Shade of Blue: The Lighthearted Memoirs of an Air Marshal (Ulverscroft Large Print Series).

No comments about Frogspawn and Floor Polish (Reminiscence).