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What the Traveller Saw
This outstanding collection of pieces, illustrated with his own superb photographs, is a unique record of Newby's travels all over the globe - and a lasting tribute to lost and fading worlds. One of the funniest and most entertaining of all travel writers, Eric Newby has been wandering the by-ways of the world for over half a century. Admired for his exceptional powers of observation, Newby's genius is also to capture the unexpected, the curious and the absurd on camera. Since his very first journey in 1938, Newby's quest for the unknown and the unusual has been insatiable. Whether on a dangerous canoe trip down the Wakwayowkastic River, with the pastoral people in the mountainous north of Spain, or visiting the exotic archipelago of Fiji, nothing escapes his eye for unlikely or amusing detail. A rare combination of travel writing and photography, What the Traveller Saw is an exhilarating record of Newby's humourous adventures over the years.
260 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Eric Newby
43 books182 followersGeorge Eric Newby CBE MC (December 6, 1919 – October 20, 2006) was an English author of travel literature.
Newby was born and grew up near Hammersmith Bridge, London, and was educated at St Paul's School. His father was a partner in a firm of wholesale dressmakers but he also harboured dreams of escape, running away to sea as a child before being captured at Millwall. 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. Fortunately, the agency lost the Kellogg's account and he apprenticed aboard the Finnish windjammer Moshulu in 1938, sailing in what Newby entitled 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). In fact, two more grain races followed the 1939 race in which Newby participated, with the last race being held in 1949.
Newby was born and grew up near Hammersmith Bridge, London, and was educated at St Paul's School. His father was a partner in a firm of wholesale dressmakers but he also harboured dreams of escape, running away to sea as a child before being captured at Millwall. 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. Fortunately, the agency lost the Kellogg's account and he apprenticed aboard the Finnish windjammer Moshulu in 1938, sailing in what Newby entitled 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). In fact, two more grain races followed the 1939 race in which Newby participated, with the last race being held in 1949.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 31, 2020
This is primarily a photography book, showcasing some of Eric Newby's photos which he took on his many trips to many varied parts of the world. My shelving gives the locations.
Divided into chapters with one location each, and with the date visited. These are in chronological order, and date from 1938 (Round the Horn Before the Mast) to 1977 The Longest Train Ride.
Each chapter consists of a number of photographs - from 2 or 3 to 7 or 8, and an essay about the circumstances of the visit. The photographs, on the whole, are interesting and poignant, the text seems clipped or not fully formed, and is probably on the whole weaker than the pictures. The essays are from a few paragraphs to a few pages. There are a few exceptions, where the text is more significant, running to several pages, and these appear to be the chapters previously published in his A Traveller's Life collection of short stories about his travels. Many times the text is outlining the history of a place with only a little about the circumstances of his visit.
Newby also captions each photograph - these run from a brief sentence to a half page discourse on the photograph, the circumstances and the history of certain events.
So for photographs 4/5 stars ****
For the text 2.5/5 stars **
On balance 3/5 stars ***
Divided into chapters with one location each, and with the date visited. These are in chronological order, and date from 1938 (Round the Horn Before the Mast) to 1977 The Longest Train Ride.
Each chapter consists of a number of photographs - from 2 or 3 to 7 or 8, and an essay about the circumstances of the visit. The photographs, on the whole, are interesting and poignant, the text seems clipped or not fully formed, and is probably on the whole weaker than the pictures. The essays are from a few paragraphs to a few pages. There are a few exceptions, where the text is more significant, running to several pages, and these appear to be the chapters previously published in his A Traveller's Life collection of short stories about his travels. Many times the text is outlining the history of a place with only a little about the circumstances of his visit.
Newby also captions each photograph - these run from a brief sentence to a half page discourse on the photograph, the circumstances and the history of certain events.
So for photographs 4/5 stars ****
For the text 2.5/5 stars **
On balance 3/5 stars ***
February 28, 2022
A very enjoyable book, an anthology of his books.
A short synopsis of the “travellers tales” ranging from two pages to twenty.
Recommend to any Newby fans or anyone just dipping their proverbial toes into this brilliant writer.
A short synopsis of the “travellers tales” ranging from two pages to twenty.
Recommend to any Newby fans or anyone just dipping their proverbial toes into this brilliant writer.
October 24, 2013
Collected Newby vignettes: fine writing, charming and informative. But they haven't quite the same self-deprecating humour that makes his classic "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush" such a joy.
January 20, 2020
What The Traveller Saw is a quick, enjoyable - yet, lacking read. It is my first venture into the travel genre. The book reads like a collection of diary entries compiled over decades of adventures through the world.
There are several gems, most notable the entry on Jordan as well as the last chapter of Newby's adventures in Sicily. The book is at its best when the the author details life around the world before the age of globalization and its fruits homogeneity and tourism. The Jordan chapter is interesting because of Newby's description of a farmer and his most prized of his collection of wives. The description is in stark contrast to how many of us live today. The chapter on Sicily is incredible as Newby describes the fear and despair of Sicilian life with domination by the mafia and its drug-fueled wars,as well as rampant poverty and attempted assassinations of government officials. Another positive is the author's photographs which are sprinkled throughout the book. Many of the images are incredible as they portray daily activities in strikingly beautiful ways.
Newby's book is enjoyable and eye-opening at its best and dull and anticlimactic at its average. I recommend the book to anyone who is interested in learning about daily life around the world in age not too long ago, yet far different than one could imagine.
There are several gems, most notable the entry on Jordan as well as the last chapter of Newby's adventures in Sicily. The book is at its best when the the author details life around the world before the age of globalization and its fruits homogeneity and tourism. The Jordan chapter is interesting because of Newby's description of a farmer and his most prized of his collection of wives. The description is in stark contrast to how many of us live today. The chapter on Sicily is incredible as Newby describes the fear and despair of Sicilian life with domination by the mafia and its drug-fueled wars,as well as rampant poverty and attempted assassinations of government officials. Another positive is the author's photographs which are sprinkled throughout the book. Many of the images are incredible as they portray daily activities in strikingly beautiful ways.
Newby's book is enjoyable and eye-opening at its best and dull and anticlimactic at its average. I recommend the book to anyone who is interested in learning about daily life around the world in age not too long ago, yet far different than one could imagine.
July 11, 2023
Utterly brilliant stories and even better photos from a life lived to the max. Comprising and required reading
August 27, 2012
Enjoyable set of travel essays, but not a patch on Love & War in the Apennines.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews