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Eric Newby

Born December 6, 1919(1919-12-06)
Hammersmith Bridge, London
Died October 20, 2006 (aged 86)
Guildford, Surrey
Occupation Author, Travel Writer
Nationality British
Writing period 1956 - 99
Genres History, Travel, Non-fiction,
Subjects India, Middle East, Britain, Europe, Afghanistan
Spouse(s) Wanda
Children 2 (a son and a daughter)
Influences
Influenced
Official website

George Eric Newby CBE MC (December 6, 1919 – October 20, 2006[1]) was an English author of travel literature, regarded by many as one of the finest British travel writers of the 20th century. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1740 - Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. Nationality is a relationship between a Person and their State of Origin, Culture, association Affiliation and/or Loyalty A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction Arthur Evelyn St John Waugh (ˈiːvlɪn ˈwɔː (28 October 1903 &ndash 10 April 1966 was an English Writer, best known for such darkly humorous and Jerome Klapka Jerome ( May 2, 1859 – June 14, 1927) was an English writer and Humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue William Dalrymple (born 20 March 1965 in Scotland) is a historian and writer The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Military Cross ( MC) is the third level Military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993 other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1740 - Maria Theresa takes the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The English people (from the adjective in Englisc) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to England who predominantly speak English Travel literature is Travel writing considered to have value as Literature. Travel literature is Travel writing considered to have value as Literature.

Contents

Life

Newby was born and grew up near Hammersmith Bridge, London, and was educated at St Paul's School. Hammersmith Bridge is a crossing of the River Thames in west London, just south of the Hammersmith town centre area of the London Borough of Hammersmith London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. St Paul's School is the name of many schools with St Paul's School in London, (founded 1509 being the oldest His father was a partner in a firm of wholesale dressmakers but he too also harboured dreams of escape, running away to sea as a child before being captured at Millwall. For the football team see Millwall FC. Millwall is an area in London, on the western side of the Isle of Dogs, in Owing to his father's frequent financial crises and his own failure to pass algebra, Newby was taken away from school at sixteen and put to work as an office boy in the Dorland advertising agency on Regent Street, where he spent most of his time cycling around the office admiring the typists' legs. Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London 's West End. Fortunately, the agency lost the Kellogg's account and he apprenticed aboard the Finnish windjammer Moshulu in 1938, sailing in what Newby entitled the The Last Grain Race (1956) from Europe to Australia and back by way of Cape Horn (his journey was also pictorially documented in Learning the Ropes). Finland, officially the Republic of Finland ( is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. A windjammer was a type of Sailing ship with a large Iron or Steel hull, built to carry Cargo in the late Nineteenth century History Originally named Kurt after Dr Kurt Siemers director general and president of the Hamburg shipping company "G The Last Grain Race is a 1956 book by Eric Newby, a travel writer about his time spent on the Moshulu 's last voyage in the Australian Grain trade Cabo de Hornos redirects here for the Chilean commune see Cabo de Hornos Chile. In fact, two more grain races followed the 1939 race in which Newby participated, with the last race being held in 1949. [2]

Army service

In 1940, Newby was commissioned into the Black Watch in India before volunteering for the Special Boat Section, then operating out of Alexandria. The Black Watch 3rd Battalion Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS is an Infantry Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Special Boat Service ( SBS) is the Special forces unit of the British Royal Navy. Alexandria ( Egyptian Arabic: اسكندريه Eskendereyya; Standard Arabic: ar الإسكندرية Al-Iskandariyya; Ἀλεξάνδρεια In 1942 his detachment was sent on an operation to sabotage a German airfield at Catania in Sicily, attempting to stop the bombing of a convoy bound for Malta by Junkers Ju 88s. Catania ( Greek: &ndash Katánē; Latin: Catăna and Catĭna; Arabic: Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. Malta, officially the Republic of Malta (Repubblika ta' Malta is a European Microstate, comprising an Archipelago of three islands WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout No-one had told them there were 1,000 German troops guarding the airfield, and the entire party was captured. Between 1942 and 1943, he was held prisoner of war in a camp at Fontanellato, in the Po Valley. A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of enemy combatants captured by the enemy in time of war and is similar to an Internment camp which is used for civilian Fontanellato is a small town in the province of Parma in north Italy. Po RiverThe Po Valley (Pianura Padana or Val Padana is a major geographical feature of Italy.

Escape and recapture from POW camp

After the announcement of the Italian Amistizio in September 1943, Newby made his escape with a broken ankle into the surrounding countryside. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest He was initially helped by his future wife, Wanda, the daughter of a Slovene teacher, and later sheltered at great risk by the local Italian peasantry. Slovenes or Slovenians ( Slovene Slovenci, dual Slovenca, singular Slovenec, feminine Slovenke, dual Slovenki He passed the winter of 1943 with Luigi and Agata on the remote Pian del Sotto, having to do the back-breaking work of clearing stones from their fields, and then hid out in a cave. These experiences were described in vivid detail in perhaps his most memorable book Love and War in the Apennines (a film, In Love and War, was made in 2001 based on the book). He and his fellow English escapee, James, were finally betrayed and captured by Fascist milizia after about five months of freedom, and Newby spent the rest of the war in Czechoslovakian and German prison camps. Czechoslovakia may also refer to what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1946 for his part in the ill-fated Whynot raid. The Military Cross ( MC) is the third level Military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993 other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to He then worked for MI9, helping and rewarding those who had sheltered escaped prisoners, and this allowed him to woo and finally marry the beautiful Wanda Skof. MI9, the British Military Intelligence Section 9 is a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office, during He ended the war as a Lieutenant and then served in the Territorial Army Special Air Service. Lieutenant (abbreviated Lt or Lieut) is a Military, Naval, Paramilitary, Fire service, Emergency medical services The Territorial Army ( TA) is the principal and Volunteer reserve force of the British Army, the land armed forces branch of the United Kingdom The Special Air Service ( SAS) is a Special forces regiment within the British Army which has served as a model and inspiration for the special

Post War years

Newby spent the next ten years in his father's dressmaking business, later recalling his time in Something Wholesale (1962), then for the couture house of Worth Paquin (1955-56) and then for the publishers Secker & Warburg. He returned to fashion as the central buyer for the John Lewis department stores, but he was not suited to the 9-5 routine. John Lewis is a chain of upmarket Department stores operating throughout Great Britain and popular amongst the British middle class for its high quality

Expedition in the Hindu Kush

Ill-prepared and inexperienced, Newby and his friend Hugh Carless set out to climb Mir Samir, an unclimbed glacial peak of 20,000 feet (6,100 m) in the Nuristan Mountains of Afghanistan, an expedition later chronicled in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958), probably his most widely-known work. Nuristān (Pashto نورستان also spelled Nurestān) is a region embedded in the south of Hindu Kush valleys Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, Newby's style was inspired by the comic portrait of Englishmen abroad presented in the writings of novelists such as Evelyn Waugh and Jerome K. Jerome. Arthur Evelyn St John Waugh (ˈiːvlɪn ˈwɔː (28 October 1903 &ndash 10 April 1966 was an English Writer, best known for such darkly humorous and Jerome Klapka Jerome ( May 2, 1859 – June 14, 1927) was an English writer and Humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue In a preface to A Short Walk, Waugh identifies the central elements of this humorous tradition: its quintessentially English spirit of amateurism and a tone of ironic understatement. Amateurism (from Fr amateur "lover of" from OFr from L Understatement is a form of speech in which a lesser expression is used than what would be expected

Ganges Expedition

Having endured a month of hardship during their adventure in Afghanistan and nearing the end of their trip, a somewhat 'knackered' Newby encounters the striding form of Wilfred Thesiger on the banks of the Upper Panjshir, describing their meeting as that of an inept amateur and professional adventurer. Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger, CBE, DSO, ( 3 June, 1910 &ndash August 24, 2003) was a British explorer In 1963, he and Wanda set out to travel the 1,200 miles (1,900 km) of the Ganges by rowing boat, described in Slowly Down the Ganges (1966). The Ganges (ˈgænʤiːz also Ganga, Devanāgarī: hi गंगा in most Indian languages) is the major river in the Indian subcontinent From 1963 to 1973, Newby was travel editor for The Observer newspaper, writing several more books and often accompanied on this travels by his wife. The Observer is a British Newspaper published on Sundays In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The

Later Works

His later works include The Big Red Train Ride (1978), On The Shores of the Mediterranean (1984) and Round Ireland in Low Gear (1987). Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world However, his gift as a writer comes from the distillation of his early youthful experiences and this later writing, though amusing, somewhat lacks the freshness of his earlier books. For many years Newby lived in Dorset before finally moving to Surrey. Dorset ( (or archaically, Dorsetshire) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. He died in Guildford on 20th October, 2006 aged 86. Guildford ( IPA /ˈgɪlfəd/ is the County town of Surrey, England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the

Awards and Recognitions

Newby was appointed a CBE in 1994 and awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Guild of Travel Writers in 2001. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Geographic Society. The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain " History Founding members of the Society include Sir John Barrow, Sir John Franklin and Francis Beaufort. His life and work was profiled in ITV's The South Bank Show (directed by Tony Knox) in 1994. The South Bank Show is an award-winning Television arts magazine show made by London Weekend Television, presented by Melvyn Bragg, broadcast He also made travel films for the BBC, returning to Parma with his wife Wanda in The Travel Show (directed by Paul Coueslant, 1994) and visiting one of his favourite cities, Istanbul (1996). Parma is a City in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna near Modena famous for its Architecture and the fine countryside around it Istanbul (historically Byzantium and later Constantinople; see the other Names of Istanbul) is the largest city of Turkey In 2005, for the first time in France, his photographic work about the last grain race in 1938-39 was exhibited by the Musée Portuaire of Dunkirk as a part of "Cap sur le Horn". Jacopo Brancati[3], was the curator of this exhibition section.

Selected bibliography

References

  1. ^ BBC News Travel writer Newby dies aged 86 22 October 2006
  2. ^ pamir.chez-alice: The grain races (retrieved 1 December 2006)
  3. ^ Italian born photographer (1966), is specialised in maritime reportages

External links

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