Daren

Swedish mathematician Birger Lövgren determines that intellectuals such as himself are at high risk of health issues, and getting out in the world would be a better use of his time. Travelling from New York to Tierra del Fuego on the partially constructed Pan-American Highway by motorcycle, alone seems like a viable option.

He is pretty funny, writes with a perceptive eye, and pushes his luck, usually with good results. This book was published in 1960 (in its original Swedish), so it is reasonable to assume the travel occurred in the few years prior, which sort of ties in with the events in the book. This was a hell of a journey.

The USA receives scant mention before tackling Mexico, where his writing hits its straps. Roads are still recognisable as roads and the motorcycle remains in one piece, but as the route rolls out - Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica there are real challenges and a lot of repair and improvisation. Mixed with motorcycle events are his time spend with the people, the vast majority of whom are helpful and friendly, assisting the author in his various times of need. True to the title he spends time writing about the Indians of each area passed through - the Maya, Aztec and Inca being the main ones, this in the form of light history.

Panama is a problem - the Darien Gap - not only are there no roads, and the motorcycle must be shipped to Colombia, but very few people have made it through the Darien before. Various large well organised expeditions have failed; far more people have gone missing, than have made it though. Hostile Indians, very tough terrain, no accurate maps other than for the coastlines, and lack of common language are all issues to face. Nobody recommends that he continues, but Lövgren is adamant his plan was to follow the land route, and won't ship around.

This is clearly the toughest of the challenges within his journey, and the writing is as up to the task as Lövgren himself, who is clearly very self-motovated. He negotiates with the Indians, receives assistance (reluctantly given, often) and suffers the same trials as those who guide and assist him - lack of food, exhausting efforts and tough travel.

Upon reaching Colombia, he finds that his motorcycle, which has been reasonably reliable until now struggles at altitude. After trials, efforts and struggles, he comes to the conclusion he simply cannot pass over the Andes with this motorbike, so the second half of his journey must be by bus.

Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina - ending in the southernmost city in South America (and the world), Ushuaia. For completeness he crosses into Chile several times as the road is under repair, and the diversions often cross the border! These sections are far quicker, given the transport is bus rather than bike, and stops are infrequent.

Overall an enjoyable book, and an amusing and engaging author.

4 stars

Icelandic author Hallgrimur Helgason gets to gently mock the Icelandic language and some traits visitors to Iceland will recognise in an amusing dark comedy about a mob hitman from New York who find himself in trouble. Unbeknownst to him, Tomislav Boksic's last hit was an FBI agent and while the manhunt closes in on him in the airport he must change his plans quickly.

The best available physical match to him is wearing a priests collar, and after knocking him off and taking his closes and passport, find himself with a ticket to Iceland as Father David Friendly. Tomaslav, as a Croatian must now explain to border control why he speaks with a Slavic accent, but was born in the USA. He must also stay in character to convince to the televangelist couple who are at the airport to meet him that he is also the televangelist preacher that his website says he is!

While clearly a ludicrous plot, things get darker when Tomislav starts to examine his former life as he struggles to adjust to life in a country where the sun doesn't set, there are no guns, very little crime, and many beautiful women!

There are a number of steps to the plot, but it rolls out pretty well, albeit the ending feels rushed - be warned.

While I loved Helgason's Reykjavik 101 this is quite different, but genuinely quite funny and not a bad way to start the 2026 reading year.

4 stars

Excellent. This is what Moby Dick would have been, if Melville had stuck to a narrative instead of branching off in all sorts of directions!

While this is referred to as fiction by some sources, others consider it a biography made up of various events some lived, some told to the author. It reads as a continuous narrative of a three year journey on the whale ship Cachalot named, of course, for its prime target species, also known as the sperm whale. Published in 1899 it has been reprinted numerous times since. My edition was published locally in 1976.

Bullen, British but finding himself at a loose end in New Bedford, Massachusetts, signs on as a crewman on the whaler. Having worked on merchant shipping he is very familiar with the workings of a ship, but not experienced in whaling, and in this book he explains in detail his three years of both. The Cachalot set out under Captain Slocum, a volatile and hard taskmaster, given to working the crew incredibly hard, even when unnecessary. Early on Bullen forms a friendship with the fourth mate, a black sailor with whom the Captain takes exception on every occasion - a mutual dislike the reason behind which Bullen never learns. The fourth mate is particularly well informed on all matters whaling - knowledge which is imparted to Bullen, and likewise the reader.

Having nautical experience, and being skilled beyond the vast majority of the crew Bullen steps into more skilled tasks is treated better by the captain and mates, but remains well liked by the crew. While he doesn't philosophise unnecessarily, Bullen treats all men equally and fairly, is one of few who respects the fourth mate equally with the Portuguese or American mates, and steps in to lend a hand in all occasions.

Whaling at this time was carried out with a method involving small boats let loose from the ship when near the whale (or whales) but not so near the whales were aware of the ship. The small boats would then sail or paddle to the whales and attach a harpoon with a long running rope. The whale at this point would usually depart quickly, and the small boat would be taken in tow, but pay out rope until the long spool was running low at which time another boat would splice on a second rope. At some point the boat would commence reeling itself closer to the whale and upon the whale breaking the surface to breathe the boatmen would attempt to lance the whale, penetrating the vital organs. The ship would then hove too and chain up the whale and commence the removal of blubber and then the harvesting of spermaceti from the head. Obviously a brutal process, but it was a different time, of course, and conservation was not a consideration, whereas oil was considered a necessity of life.

Bullen was to lead the boat in which the first mate Mr Court was harpooner, a boat which was generally afforded the right of way and therefore made more kills, but was also manned by the better crew, as was the first mates right. In this way Bullen was able to prove his worth with the first mate - to become a boon for him later.

The three year voyage consisted of departing New Bedford moving from whaling ground to whaling grounds as the seasons dictate, but largely at the whim of the Captain. After making for the Azores (but not landing), heading south passing by the Cape Verde (again not landing) they continue south to Tristan de Cunha. From there east below the African continent, passing inside Madagascar and past the Comoros, calling at the Seychelles, passing between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsular, passing north of the Philippines and east of Japan, calling at the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara Islands of Japan) and into the Sea of Okhotsk (between the Russian mainland and Kamchatka). From there, further east and south in the Pacific where they call at Honolulu before heading southwest to Tonga, taking on native crew and spending time there recuperating.

By this time, Mr Court the first mate was captain. The fourth mate having fought with the Captain Slocum, ending both their lives in a dramatic fashion. As a result Bullen is made fourth mate, and commands a whale boat of his own, having selected as his harpooner a Tongan crewman who proves very skilled.

From Tonga they head south through the Pacific whaling grounds calling at Futuna (of Wallis and Futuna, now a French protectorate) for supplies before making south to New Zealand. Initially in the Bay of Islands on the north east coast, then to the Solander whaling grounds west and south of the lower South Island where they spent the balance of their whaling time until the ship was filled with oil and ready to make the trip back to New Bedford.

While cachelots (sperm whales) were the primary catch, the ship also took humpback whales where they were present and sperm whales were not, a number of killer whales (known as black fish in this book) and even some porpoises - although this was as much a training exercise for the green crew as any great commercial gain. Thousands of drums of oil were rendered and stored in the hold, the ultimate goal being to fill the ship to capacity.

The book covers all aspects of whaling, describing the methods and experiences of Bullen really well. Bullen was naturally more inquisitive than the rest of the crew, continually questioning, learning about others experiences and speculating as to the many unknowns about the whales.

Highly recommended for a thorough description of whaling in the late 1800s.

5 stars.

Jim Corbett is well known for his stories of tigers and leopards in India, his hunting of maneaters, and his hunter turned conservationist works. This one is a bit different, and focusses on people.

It was published late in his life, reflecting on various situations, and about his work for the railways- initially as a fuel inspector for 18 months (cutting wood for the railways), then in a series of odd jobs before being sent to Mokameh Ghat to become the Trans-shipment Inspector. At Mokameh Ghat, and across the Ganges River at Samaria Ghat are the interfaces of two railway systems, one wide gauge rail, the other narrow gauge. In short this means trans-shipping all cargo from one set of carriages to the other. Each year in the busy season the railway lost a lot of money when the cargo backlogged and trains were unable to run. Corbett was now responsible for the entire process.

Throughout his stories Corbett proves a very good judge of character, regularly backing unlikely people to achieve great things and (certainly in the case of these stories) he is proven right. Whether it is loaning money to people, buying off their debt or just investing time in making someone well. Corbett shows he has not judgement on caste or background, and was able to successfully maintain friendships with his subordinates to achieve greater outcomes.

It leaves one to wonder about people like Corbett who were fully invested in India, born and raised in Colonial India, how they deal with the independence of India, and being no longer welcome there. In Corbett's case he emigrated to Kenya, and died there three years after this book was published at age 79.

Short but interesting and well written book.

4 stars

Really, quite a unique book, albeit a little hard to get the hang of reading! An autobiographical memoir by Ghulam Rassul Galwan, who was approximately 45 years old in 1923 when it was written. Thus born around 1878, in Leh, Ladakh he grew up in a poor family, but according to his own story, always tried very hard to achieve, to learn and to earn an income. It was his rudimentary English that allowed him his start in working for the foreign sahibs.

The book is subtitled 'a book to be read aloud' and the reason is it is written in (I guess best described as) broken English, or as would be spoken by the author - it takes a bit to get used to, and requires a certain amount of re-reading to pick up the thread sometimes. To give a taste of how it goes: Here he describes one of his first jobs as an assistant to a British Doctor, travelling the state taking anatomical measurements of Indian people:

That sahib's business was to measure the people's face, feet, and hands: everybody's. The Ladakis thought this would be for them unluck, not would let him measure them. Sahib measured me, all my body and my face, and said: " I will give presents to those men which will let me measure." I said to the villages men: "This measuring business not is bad. If it be bad, I never let sahib measure me." And some them said : "Yes, we believe to you. We will let sahib measure us." Then I said sahib: "Measure me every camp, and let the villages people see. Then will find other men for sahib, without trouble." Sahib did this always after, and got plenty people to measure.

And so starting with his early life, moving on to each employment with British and American travellers, he describes pretty much everything. There are a number of employers, the most well known of which was Francis Younghusband, and travelling to places such as the Tibetan plateau, the Pamir mountains and the deserts of Central Asia.

Initially as a coolie, an assistant, a muleteer - any work he would take, and eventually proving his worth he became responsible for more. In latter times he acted as caravan leader, determining quantities and purchasing all provisions for the expedition, obtaining horses, donkeys, mules or camels as needed. Much of the time he was disliked by the other workers, as the was scrupulously honest and refused to take advantage of the sahib's provisions or money, and was often left to take the blame when work was not carried out as needed. He was generally efficient and clever and inevitably became seen as indispensable to the sahibs.

Throughout the journeys the reader gains glimpses of culture and descriptions of the hardships of travel, the encounters with other people (especially the Tibetan's who are committed to keeping the foreigners out of Tibet).

While a little laborious to read, the content is quite rewarding, and even taking into account the authors positive presentation of himself, he was clearly a well thought of caravan leader, sought out by the sahib's to make their travels run smoothly. Younghusband writes a shot introduction.

I read a digitized version of first edition by W Heffner & Son, Cambridge in 1923.

4 stars

First published in the Evening Standard in 1946, this very short essay is Orwell's essay description of his favourite pub. It is, of course, very British. Orwell describes the decor, the services, the patrons, even the barmaids are described.

There are three bars, a take away service and a dining room (upstairs, lunch only, six days a week), as well as a garden bar. They serve their beer in China mugs, gone out of fashion 30 years before this was written.

Orwell provides a twist, albeit not a very surprising one.

As per the title of the essay, Orwell also names the pub - The Moon Under Water . How many pubs or bars are now called this, you have to wonder? There is one locally, I am sure there are many, and most punters are blissfully unaware of the origins of the name!

3 stars

Published in 2023, Rushdie sets up this story as an epic to match the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, but shares it as a (fictional) translation and retelling in this novel - a retelling the chronicle of the founding, life and end of a 14th century city in southern India, its name Bisnaga - a corruption of the word Vijayanagara, or Victory City. Being Salman Rushdie, the story contains magical realism and allegories - many of which, no doubt I didn't pick up on. It is a story partly inspired by the historical, fourteenth-century princess-poet Gangadevi, and the rise of the real historical empire of Vijayanagara (or Karnata Kingdom) in Southern India.

The epic is called Jayaparajaya meaning 'Victory and Defeat', and is made up of twenty-four thousand verses - hence the need for Rushdie to retell it in a simplified form. The author - Pampa Kampana, who on the first page of the novel is 247 years old, witnesses the destruction of Bisnaga, allowing her to compete the epic, seal it in a jar and finally to die.

Pampa Kampana is the constant in the story - as a nine year old the city she lived in lost a war, its soldiers were slaughtered, the women of the village made an enormous fire and in a mass of self immolation, all committed suicide, including her mother, leaving her alone and terrified. Pampa at this point has a divine encounter with Goddess Parvati who speaks through the body of Pampa, and gives her powers - what Parvati says is of course, the storyline of the novel...

"From blood and fire, life and power will be born. In this exact place, a great city will rise, a wonder of the world, and its empire will last more than two centuries. And you will fight to make sure than no more women are burned in this way, and that men start considering women in new ways, and you will live just long enough to witness both your success and failure, to see it all and tell its story, even though once you have finished telling it you will die immediately and nobody will remember you for four hundred and fifty years."

And so from a sack of seeds the city is created, the people with it, their histories created by Pampa, the two brother - retired soldiers, returned to shepherding - who cast the seed, become the first and second kings of Bisnaga, and from there dynasties are created for 247 years.

There is a 'Game of Thrones' element to it, with intrigues, pacts made and broken, expanding empires and warring between states and kingdoms. Each man raised to king brings different rules around the diversity, identity, and multiculturalism, religion, tolerance and war. As expected love and betrayal provide regular twists in the King's court.

There are many intrigues, many allusions to modern day events. The feminist angle is perhaps clumsily written, but is persisted with over generations. There is many nods to India and Pakistan, division on religious lines, to the mixing of religions, imperialism (in the form of invading pink monkeys), the blending of politics and religion, etc etc.

Make no mistake - this book is not the intricate complexity of his earlier works. For me this was almost Rushdie-light. The story flows easily, without a lot of thinking - in fact Rushdie regularly interrupts his narrative to give a paragraph long explanation for something that might be a little complex for the reader to see, or to explain why he chops out a section of narrative, but still wants the reader to know it happened. As other reviewers allude to, perhaps Rushdie doesn't write the female mind very well, and his work of feminism is not where most women would have gone given the power to shape the life of a city.

This was a very easy read, but an enjoyable one, despite its few flaws.

4 stars

Excellent. This is what Moby Dick would have been, if Melville had stuck to a narrative instead of branching off in all sorts of directions!

While this is referred to as fiction by some sources, others consider it a biography made up of various events some lived, some told to the author. It reads as a continuous narrative of a three year journey on the whale ship Cachalot named, of course, for its prime target species, also known as the sperm whale. Published in 1899 it has been reprinted numerous times since. My edition was published locally in 1976.

Bullen, British but finding himself at a loose end in New Bedford, Massachusetts, signs on as a crewman on the whaler. Having worked on merchant shipping he is very familiar with the workings of a ship, but not experienced in whaling, and in this book he explains in detail his three years of both. The Cachalot set out under Captain Slocum, a volatile and hard taskmaster, given to working the crew incredibly hard, even when unnecessary. Early on Bullen forms a friendship with the fourth mate, a black sailor with whom the Captain takes exception on every occasion - a mutual dislike the reason behind which Bullen never learns. The fourth mate is particularly well informed on all matters whaling - knowledge which is imparted to Bullen, and likewise the reader.

Having nautical experience, and being skilled beyond the vast majority of the crew Bullen steps into more skilled tasks is treated better by the captain and mates, but remains well liked by the crew. While he doesn't philosophise unnecessarily, Bullen treats all men equally and fairly, is one of few who respects the fourth mate equally with the Portuguese or American mates, and steps in to lend a hand in all occasions.

Whaling at this time was carried out with a method involving small boats let loose from the ship when near the whale (or whales) but not so near the whales were aware of the ship. The small boats would then sail or paddle to the whales and attach a harpoon with a long running rope. The whale at this point would usually depart quickly, and the small boat would be taken in tow, but pay out rope until the long spool was running low at which time another boat would splice on a second rope. At some point the boat would commence reeling itself closer to the whale and upon the whale breaking the surface to breathe the boatmen would attempt to lance the whale, penetrating the vital organs. The ship would then hove too and chain up the whale and commence the removal of blubber and then the harvesting of spermaceti from the head. Obviously a brutal process, but it was a different time, of course, and conservation was not a consideration, whereas oil was considered a necessity of life.

Bullen was to lead the boat in which the first mate Mr Court was harpooner, a boat which was generally afforded the right of way and therefore made more kills, but was also manned by the better crew, as was the first mates right. In this way Bullen was able to prove his worth with the first mate - to become a boon for him later.

The three year voyage consisted of departing New Bedford moving from whaling ground to whaling grounds as the seasons dictate, but largely at the whim of the Captain. After making for the Azores (but not landing), heading south passing by the Cape Verde (again not landing) they continue south to Tristan de Cunha. From there east below the African continent, passing inside Madagascar and past the Comoros, calling at the Seychelles, passing between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsular, passing north of the Philippines and east of Japan, calling at the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara Islands of Japan) and into the Sea of Okhotsk (between the Russian mainland and Kamchatka). From there, further east and south in the Pacific where they call at Honolulu before heading southwest to Tonga, taking on native crew and spending time there recuperating.

By this time, Mr Court the first mate was captain. The fourth mate having fought with the Captain Slocum, ending both their lives in a dramatic fashion. As a result Bullen is made fourth mate, and commands a whale boat of his own, having selected as his harpooner a Tongan crewman who proves very skilled.

From Tonga they head south through the Pacific whaling grounds calling at Futuna (of Wallis and Futuna, now a French protectorate) for supplies before making south to New Zealand. Initially in the Bay of Islands on the north east coast, then to the Solander whaling grounds west and south of the lower South Island where they spent the balance of their whaling time until the ship was filled with oil and ready to make the trip back to New Bedford.

While cachelots (sperm whales) were the primary catch, the ship also took humpback whales where they were present and sperm whales were not, a number of killer whales (known as black fish in this book) and even some porpoises - although this was as much a training exercise for the green crew as any great commercial gain. Thousands of drums of oil were rendered and stored in the hold, the ultimate goal being to fill the ship to capacity.

The book covers all aspects of whaling, describing the methods and experiences of Bullen really well. Bullen was naturally more inquisitive than the rest of the crew, continually questioning, learning about others experiences and speculating as to the many unknowns about the whales.

Highly recommended for a thorough description of whaling in the late 1800s.

5 stars.

In 1971 PLF travelled to Peru with a group of wealthy mates and swanned about for a month.

His mates consisted of Lord Kinross; the Duke of Devonshire; Deputy Director of the National Trust; A Swiss climber and world ski champion who managed Cartier in London for 30 years; and lawyer / social anthropologist Andre Choremi. So, you know, just a few mates scratching together a few quid to see the Andes.

The book takes the form of three letters written home to PFL's wife - lightly edited for context and content and supplied with footnotes to clarify various things.

Jumping straight to the point, this was not of great entertainment. The writing is descriptive in parts but not overly; the history is scattered and very light - contextual only; the content is only mildly interesting. As you might expect in a letter home, there are logistics, meals, interactions with locals and hotel experiences (no hot water, eggs not prepared well) to discuss...

Don't get this book confused with Fermor's travel writing - while I am not his biggest fan, it is far better than this, which is quite dull and almost pedestrian in it's delivery.

Recommended only for the PLF completist.

2 stars

A quirky book, a digital copy of which I was provided by the publisher in exchange for a review.

It is subtitled "The Story of the Fake Writings of George Psalmanazar, One of the Greatest Charlatans in Literary History With the Full Text of his Book “A Description Of Formosa” and Extra Writings on his Alleged Travels and his Spurious Responses to Skeptical Objections", which goes a long way to explaining that it is about!

This is a book in several parts - Part 1 is the authors explanation of how the story unfolded, the very short version of which is that a man arrived in England 1704, calling himself George Psalmanazar, claiming to be the first man from Formosa (Taiwan as we now know it) to visit Europe. He made various outlandish claims on life and society in Formosa, publishing a book in that same year setting out all the details of life.

That book is reproduced in full in Part 2. Part 3 is account he wrote of his journey in Europe. Part 4 is a Preface to the second edition of his book, in which he responds to the challenges of his many critics.

It is an interesting story of fraud by a French-born man who we know little about.

His lengthy description of Formosa covers in depth all aspects of life in he same way a social anthropologist would set about describing a society - societal structure, religion, marriage / customs / beliefs, economy, industry and farming, clothing, music, buildings, language, money, the intervention of foreign peoples.

Some is plainly ridiculous, such as the sacrifice of 18,000 boys per year for their religion. But one cant say he didn't boldly defend his position and attempt to argue his way forward.

I lost interest part way through most sections, but there was just enough there to have made it an interesting story. I read it small amounts at a time, so it didn't really allow me to pull the whole thing together cohesively, which is perhaps my own issue, not the authors.

3 stars.