North from Kabul

The authors travels through Afghanistan in 1959, described well in this relatively short book. An interesting time for Afghanistan, when the Russians were ever present, pushing their influence with strategic and military construction. Daoud Khan was prime minister as was pushing for a closer Soviet relationship and a more distant relationship with Pakistan. Afghanistan at the time was also flirting with the idea of more freedom for women - some starting to walk in the cities without the chador, wearing instead a headscarf.

Travelling in a fairly unorthodox way for the time (alone, and to remote areas), the author comes under some scrutiny with this military maps and cameras, often warned off taking photos or looking around, he gets well off the tourist route in a time where tourists weren't very commonplace. The author expressed his concerns fairly frequently, but it didn't prevent him from pushing on into more remote areas over the Hindu Kush near the Soviet border.

Well paced, interestingly written the book contains a mixture of person anecdotes and travel experiences with historical and cultural background to place events in context. His characterisations of people he meets are well written and the numerous photographs spread through the book are generally very good.

Four stars.