ERIC NEWBY

“For the memory is selective and it is easier to remember what one wants to remember, so if I have to chose between the splendour and the miseries, I will chose the moments of happiness in spite of the fact that there are few situations in which men and women are completely happy and completely free.” 
Eric Newby, A Small Place in Italy

ABOUT ERIC NEWBY

Eric Newby (1919-2006) is an English travel writer who first started out in women’s fashion and then served in World War II before starting his illustrious writing career.  As an eighteen-year-old, he participated n the “Grain Race” an informal windjammer sailing competition from Australia to England, by way of Cape Horn.  That voyage was chronicled in his first book, The Last Grain Race (1956).  Newby served in the Special Boat Section, a maritime special operations unit for the United Kingdom, was captured during an operation in Sicily in 1942, escaped into the Italian countryside, and was recaptured in 1944.  His book about the experience, Love and War in the Apennines (1971), is one his best.  His travel career resumed in 1956 with the impulsive decision to explore the Nuristan Mountains in Afghanistan, an adventurous trip that resulted in the classic idiosyncratic travel book A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958).  Newby also worked for many years as the Travel Editor of The Observer.

A5 RECOMMENDATIONS - ERIC NEWBY BOOKS

GREAT QUOTES FROM ERIC NEWBY

“To attempt to write about Dun Aengus and bring some sort of freshness to it is rather like trying to perform a similar service for Stonehenge: so many people have attempted it before that one is tempted to give up what one is looking at is not only one of the wonders of Ireland, but of the entire Western world.” 
- Eric Newby, Round Ireland in Low Gear

INTERESTING LINKS:

  • ​Read Michael Shapiro's interview with Eric Newby in A Sense of Place, a collection of face-to-face discussions with some the world's best travel writers on their craft and on their inspiration​​.
  • Eric Newby unfortunately passed away in 2006.  Click here for his obituary from the New York Times.
  • Or, read the obituary written by Michael Shapiro in 2006 for Newby for SFGate.