Daren

This fits into Idriess's autobiographical travels book topic (as opposed to a biography about a historical figure, a collection of historic stories around a theme, or a straight out book on mining or precious stones). I have liked his previous autobiographical tales best of all, but this was a little flat.

Idriess was recovering from a bout of malaria, and so was a little low-energy, and that seemed to come through in the writing of this. He joins friends on a driving trip from Sydney to Perth and back (with some side diversions in south-west WA and through Adelaide , Geelong and Canberra on the return): the leader on this journey The Super - L. Colin Smith, who is in the bookselling industry and for work travels across part of Australia visiting bookshops - while the detail is never shared, presumably to make sales to them. The other, co-driver etc is Quiz Kid - CW Priestly, of Canberra - a civil servant.

The three are jokingly argumentative the entire time, each pair ganging up on the third at ay given time to gently mock. Idriess is referred to as Inkpot and is treated as incapable of anything - he is not permitted to drive, has no tasks to perform, he doesn't even carry his own suitcase (an oversized thing his wife insisted on packing). Whether this is due to his recovery from malaria, or whether his friends really judge his as incapable is not really spelled out. Certainly Idriess is singled out for the most mocking.

So primarily a book of their journey of some 10 weeks, 9000 miles across the Nullarbor, but The Super and Quiz Kid throw in lots of random facts, and Idriess fills out local history.

Its a fairly gentle read, telling positive stories at a local level through the four states they travel (New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia on the east to west , with ACT added in on the return journey).

3.5 stars, for its unusual low energy.

It seems that different editions of this book have different stories, and some in a different order.

My edition, Hodder & Stoughton from 1911 contains the following stories as retold by Laurence Housman: Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves; The Story of the Wicked Half-Brothers; The Story of the Princess of Deryabar; The Story of the Magic Horse; The Fisherman and the Genie; The Story of the King of the Ebony Isles.

Contained within are twenty four color illustrations by Edmund Dulac. The illustrations are very well executed, of a style I guess is art nouveau, but show the Persian characters with big noses and mean expressions; the women thin, with all similar faces - perhaps recognised as beautiful at the time.

I enjoyed the stories, having read the Thousand Nights and the One Night. As others observe, not all stories reward the honest, and so are not moral guides, but then that would be disinteresting wouldn't it?

5 stars

Simply written, likely for young readers, this short story by Ruskin Bond is a charming tale of a girl with an umbrella. Out in the hills of Garhwal Binya is herding her family cows when she comes upon so wealth city picnickers. One of the women wants Binya's lucky leopard's claw, and eventually, albeit petulantly agrees to give her a blue sink umbrella in exchange.

Binya adores the umbrella and from this point it goes everywhere with her rain or shine, despite the fact is is mostly decorative.

The beautiful silk umbrella is not an item seen before in the village, and Binya becomes the envy of all the villagers, not least shopkeeper Ram Bharosa, who wants it at all costs.

The short story has a charming twist at its end, and becomes a moral tale.

An easy read, but worth the effort, typical of Ruskin Bond's simple writing style.

4 stars

For $2NZ I picked this up in a small town second hand shop - a surprising find, a book I have been looking for for a number of years.

I was surprised by this book -to find a young Richard Halliburton vagabonding around the world when I am more used to his travelling in style or at least sparing no expense. Writing articles for newspapers as he goes, picking up the royalty cheques in the next major city is a fine way to meet ongoing costs, but Halliburton appears almost allergic to money - no sooner does he receive a windfall than he heads to a casino to blow the majority, leaving him just enough to move on.

Jumping trains, stowing away on ships and most often buying the cheapest ticket available (third in the case of trains or deck / steerage depending on the ship) and sneaking or talking his way into first class. From time to time he is indulged by high society, lent clothes and attends parties, but for he main he is vagabonding with others. He pairs up with companions and for periods they travel together, but never for very long. He also pairs up with ladies (the romance of the title) but is very discrete if there is anything more than companionship.

Page 2/3

"A wave of exultation swept over me. Youth - nothing else worth having in the world... and I had youth, the transitory, the fugitive, now, completely and abundantly. Yest what was I to do with it? [...] I wanted freedom, freedom to search the farthermost corners of the earth for the beautiful, the joyous and the romantic.

The romantic 0 that was what I wanted. I hungered for the romance of the sea, the foreign ports, and foreign smiles. I wanted to follow the prow of a ship, any ship, and sail away, perhaps to China, perhaps to Spain, perhaps to the South Sea Isles, there to do nothing all day but lie on a surf-swept beach and fling monkeys at coconuts.

I hungered for the romance of great mountains. From childhood I dreamed of climbing Fujiyama and the Matterhorn [...] I wanted to swim the Hellespont where Lord Byron swam, float down the Nile in a butterfly boat, make love to a pale Kashmiri maiden beside the Shalimar, dance to the castanets of Granada gypsies, commune in solitude with the Taj Mahal, hunt tigers in the Bengal jungle - try everything once. I wanted to realize my youth while I had it, and yield to temptation before increasing years and responsibilities robbed me of courage."

Published in 1926, the 600 day journey beginning and ending in America covers a lot of ground. With a penchant for mountain climbing, he tackles the Matterhorn, the rock of Gibraltar (and is promptly prosecuted for taking photographs in a military zone), Kheop' pyramid and Mount Fuji. He is also not shy of a long trek when required, travelling overland from Myanmar into Thailand through a rough and overgrown trail (a route not unlike other vagabonding books I have read).

Roughly his journey takes him from the USA to Europe - Switzerland, France, Andorra, Spain, Gibraltar, Monaco to Egypt, on to India up through Kashmir and very close to Afghanistan, to Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, China, Russia and Japan, before returning to the USA.

4.5 stars, rounded up

The Flashman books are written as satire of the classic Victorian schoolboy / military character. They are presented as the compiled memoir, looking back across his life at the age of around 80, written by Flashman. The original Flashman character is taken from the book ‘Tom Brown's Schooldays' by Thomas Hughes, where he was the school bully.

Flashman's story here (and the remainder of the series, I understand), is bedded in accurate history. The main characters and events are all real, just with Flashman embedded in them. It is incredibly clever, and well pulled off.

No getting around it, Flashman - is a horrible character. He is a caricature of all the bad parts of your typical British public schoolboy. He is vain, cowardly (and a bully), manipulative, racist, misogynistic and self-entitled. He is a true anti-hero. And yet, the saving grace of all these character flaws, is that he is completely aware of them, and in his story he does nothing to hide them. He willingly lies to the other characters, but not to the reader, and this makes him, in a strange way, a subject for pity.

This is the first of the Flashman Papers series, and primarily covers the period 1839 to 1842. As the first book, it outlines his expulsion from Rugby School (similar to the story in Hughes' book, but from Flashman's perspective, he irons out some untruths), and his subsequent enlistment in the Eleventh Light Dragoons. There was clear reasoning in his choosing the Dragoons, as they had recently returned from India, and there was little chance of them being sent back in the near future - cowardly Flashman wanted only to draw his salary and look good in his uniform, not engage in any battles!

Events of course transpire such that he must be transferred, and he find himself packed off to India, and henceforth Afghanistan as a herald to Major-General Elphinstone. As we know (me from reading Dalrymple's Return of a King), the first Anglo-Afghan war ended with the entire British garrison be massacred. Flashman, of course, finds a way to survive, and becomes one of only two survivors to make it out of Kabul, and is subsequently invalided back to England, and his young wife.

I thought the weaving of history and fiction masterful, and Flashman despicable, however hugely entertaining. I own another three Flashman books, and will continue the series.

I must also note that the Flashman character almost certainly provided some inspiration for Lord Flashheart in the Blackadder series.

4.5 stars, rounded down.