What do you think?
Rate this book
Journey through love
THROUGH LOVE (map)
- GenresTravelNonfiction
269 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
7 people want to read
About the author
John Hillaby
34 books6 followershttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/peo... written by Douglas Matthews:
Pedestrian was the last word to apply to John Hillaby, though he has been called the most celebrated pedestrian in England. Yet like his contemporaries, Clive Wainwright and Wilfred Thesiger, he was admired as much by armchair idlers as by the serious walking fraternity. Whether pacing rapidly through the streets of London or across the high moors of his beloved Yorkshire, his tall, spare figure was instantly recognisable, and even in his seventies he could leave younger men struggling in his wake.
... the son of a printer, he was educated at Woodhouse Grove school, Leeds, from where he made his early countryside excursions. He began his career as a journalist on local weeklies in the West Riding, but was quickly caught up in the Second World War, seeing active service with the Royal Artillery, notably in the retreat through Dunkirk. He married, first, in 1940, Eleanor Riley, with whom he had two daughters, though this marriage was later dissolved.
Returning from the war he took up journalism again, and from 1949 was zoological correspondent on the then Manchester Guardian. The New York Times engaged him as European science correspondent from 1951, and the New Scientist as biological consultant from 1953. He published his first book, Within the Stream, in 1949, and all the time he was travelling, in Africa, North America and, of course, in Britain. He never scorned modern transport (though he hated motorways), but used it mainly to get him to where he wished to start serious travel, which for him was on his own two feet.
...
Hillaby was a director of the Universities Federation of Animal Welfare, and a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. He was made a Fellow of the Zoological Society, was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the City University, and in 1973 was appointed Woodward Lecturer at Yale University.
After publishing Nature and Man in 1960, Hillaby really made his impact upon the literary scene with Journey to the Jade Sea (1964), about his remarkable thousand-mile walk from Northern Kenya to Lake Rudolf, alone except for his hired bearers and a string of camels, many of whom acquire personality and character under his pen. His rueful sense of this noviciate, inept with the animals, awkward with his rifle, and dependent on the Africans for guidance and support, is belied by the achievement itself and by the professionalism of his planning and organisation. The reviewers gave it warm praise, as much for its literary quality as for the journey itself, and the book remains a classic among travel writings, having brought a new, individual and endearing personality before the reading public.
It also set the pattern and style for his later writings: Journey Through Britain (1968), an account of his walk from Land's End to John-o'-Groats, almost entirely on tracks and bridle ways; Journey Through Europe (1972), his similar walk from the Hook of Holland to Nice by way of the Alps; and Journey Through Love (1976), on scattered travels in Britain and America, which also recounts the death from cancer in l972 of his second wife, Thelma ("Tilly"), whom he had married in 1966.
Hillaby was deeply affected by Thelma's death, but although he was a solitary walker he was a companionable man, and in 1981 he married Kathleen Burton. Katie was to bring him more than domestic support. A doughty Yorkshire woman who had lived much of her life in Ceylon, she proved to be as enthusiastic a walker as John Hillaby himself, and from now on she accompanied him on his travels and appears as a cheerful, practical figure in several of his subsequent books.
These were Journey Home (1983); John Hillaby's Yorkshire (1986); John Hillaby's London (1987); and Journey to the Gods (1991), in which he returned to his earlier format with an account of his walk from Athens to Mount Olympus. His last book, Hillaby's Worl
Pedestrian was the last word to apply to John Hillaby, though he has been called the most celebrated pedestrian in England. Yet like his contemporaries, Clive Wainwright and Wilfred Thesiger, he was admired as much by armchair idlers as by the serious walking fraternity. Whether pacing rapidly through the streets of London or across the high moors of his beloved Yorkshire, his tall, spare figure was instantly recognisable, and even in his seventies he could leave younger men struggling in his wake.
... the son of a printer, he was educated at Woodhouse Grove school, Leeds, from where he made his early countryside excursions. He began his career as a journalist on local weeklies in the West Riding, but was quickly caught up in the Second World War, seeing active service with the Royal Artillery, notably in the retreat through Dunkirk. He married, first, in 1940, Eleanor Riley, with whom he had two daughters, though this marriage was later dissolved.
Returning from the war he took up journalism again, and from 1949 was zoological correspondent on the then Manchester Guardian. The New York Times engaged him as European science correspondent from 1951, and the New Scientist as biological consultant from 1953. He published his first book, Within the Stream, in 1949, and all the time he was travelling, in Africa, North America and, of course, in Britain. He never scorned modern transport (though he hated motorways), but used it mainly to get him to where he wished to start serious travel, which for him was on his own two feet.
...
Hillaby was a director of the Universities Federation of Animal Welfare, and a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. He was made a Fellow of the Zoological Society, was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the City University, and in 1973 was appointed Woodward Lecturer at Yale University.
After publishing Nature and Man in 1960, Hillaby really made his impact upon the literary scene with Journey to the Jade Sea (1964), about his remarkable thousand-mile walk from Northern Kenya to Lake Rudolf, alone except for his hired bearers and a string of camels, many of whom acquire personality and character under his pen. His rueful sense of this noviciate, inept with the animals, awkward with his rifle, and dependent on the Africans for guidance and support, is belied by the achievement itself and by the professionalism of his planning and organisation. The reviewers gave it warm praise, as much for its literary quality as for the journey itself, and the book remains a classic among travel writings, having brought a new, individual and endearing personality before the reading public.
It also set the pattern and style for his later writings: Journey Through Britain (1968), an account of his walk from Land's End to John-o'-Groats, almost entirely on tracks and bridle ways; Journey Through Europe (1972), his similar walk from the Hook of Holland to Nice by way of the Alps; and Journey Through Love (1976), on scattered travels in Britain and America, which also recounts the death from cancer in l972 of his second wife, Thelma ("Tilly"), whom he had married in 1966.
Hillaby was deeply affected by Thelma's death, but although he was a solitary walker he was a companionable man, and in 1981 he married Kathleen Burton. Katie was to bring him more than domestic support. A doughty Yorkshire woman who had lived much of her life in Ceylon, she proved to be as enthusiastic a walker as John Hillaby himself, and from now on she accompanied him on his travels and appears as a cheerful, practical figure in several of his subsequent books.
These were Journey Home (1983); John Hillaby's Yorkshire (1986); John Hillaby's London (1987); and Journey to the Gods (1991), in which he returned to his earlier format with an account of his walk from Athens to Mount Olympus. His last book, Hillaby's Worl
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 27, 2015
The reader’s attention is rightly drawn to the ripe delights within this book by the tempting spiel on the front endpaper. Here is a book stuffed to the seams with equal measure of entertaining thought and intelligent observation. Frequently fascinating, often recondite; but ahhh, what wonderful anecdotes too! The reason for the (slightly offbeat) title; “A Journey Through Love” becomes transparently obvious as one reads through the book.
There (p.45), in 1949, is Freddie Buck, a Hampstead (London) man who could recognise and name more than three thousand different British beetles. Alas, a plan to tag the beetles of Hampstead Heath by setting traps of baited sunken jam-jars is less than entirely successful. A bait of (dead) rabbit heads not being available, hare heads were instead obtained (from the Ritz Hotel! Where else?) and laid. Too late it was discovered that dogs, with their keen sense of smell, hunted hare more successfully than could beetles! (pp.51-2).
In Yorkshire, on very carefully picking up a poisonous female adder; and after what reads like a very lengthy period of close and careful admiration, Hillaby decides that for both man and for (female) snake, the safest way to return her without injury, was “ … by grasping tail and neck resolutely, stretching her a bit and tossing her into the bracken.”(p.57). How very decorous! Hillaby selects his words as carefully as his snakes: every bit as finely judged; and with an admirable, delicate, precise, and deft touch.
Anyone who has read Bill Bryson’s bestseller “A Walk In The Woods” should seek to read, at the very least, the penultimate chapter, “Appalachia” in Hillaby’s book. Here is a very different, and much darker, view of walking the Appalachian Trail. I don’t want to disbelieve Bryson’s (later) account, which is very engagingly written and utterly adorable in its humour; but in “Journey Through Love” Hillaby managed to leave me niggled and questioning just how much of the trail Bryson actually walked.
My favourite chapter in “Journey Through Love” is that of walking on the Gower peninsular (west of Swansea, Wales). Hillaby’s keen descriptive eye captures the coast and landscape to perfection. Bearing in mind that at that time (c. 1976), the strength of Welsh nationalism (Plaid Cymru) lay principally in north- and mid-Wales; it is with needle-sharp honesty that Hillaby judges that “… most of the townsmen of Glamorgan speak English lightly scented with the lilt of Welsh… a musical accent, but somewhat devious in its ambiguities.” (p.110) Ouch! Comparison of old and new abounds. Hillaby is, unsurprisingly, fascinated by the wild country around Port Eynon; and the bones of Paviland ‘Man’; a remarkable Paleolithic ancestor who lived and died many thousands of years ago. With refreshing clarity Hillaby describes the dilemma faced in 1823 following the discovery of bones that appeared to pre-date the age of the Earth (at that time Genesis had been dated to 4004 BC)!
So it is that at a steady walking pace, from what we were once, we discover who we are now. Travel too fast and clues remain obscure; knowledge remains unlearnt; an unhappy and detrimental state many times more unfortunate than tangible loss.
There (p.45), in 1949, is Freddie Buck, a Hampstead (London) man who could recognise and name more than three thousand different British beetles. Alas, a plan to tag the beetles of Hampstead Heath by setting traps of baited sunken jam-jars is less than entirely successful. A bait of (dead) rabbit heads not being available, hare heads were instead obtained (from the Ritz Hotel! Where else?) and laid. Too late it was discovered that dogs, with their keen sense of smell, hunted hare more successfully than could beetles! (pp.51-2).
In Yorkshire, on very carefully picking up a poisonous female adder; and after what reads like a very lengthy period of close and careful admiration, Hillaby decides that for both man and for (female) snake, the safest way to return her without injury, was “ … by grasping tail and neck resolutely, stretching her a bit and tossing her into the bracken.”(p.57). How very decorous! Hillaby selects his words as carefully as his snakes: every bit as finely judged; and with an admirable, delicate, precise, and deft touch.
Anyone who has read Bill Bryson’s bestseller “A Walk In The Woods” should seek to read, at the very least, the penultimate chapter, “Appalachia” in Hillaby’s book. Here is a very different, and much darker, view of walking the Appalachian Trail. I don’t want to disbelieve Bryson’s (later) account, which is very engagingly written and utterly adorable in its humour; but in “Journey Through Love” Hillaby managed to leave me niggled and questioning just how much of the trail Bryson actually walked.
My favourite chapter in “Journey Through Love” is that of walking on the Gower peninsular (west of Swansea, Wales). Hillaby’s keen descriptive eye captures the coast and landscape to perfection. Bearing in mind that at that time (c. 1976), the strength of Welsh nationalism (Plaid Cymru) lay principally in north- and mid-Wales; it is with needle-sharp honesty that Hillaby judges that “… most of the townsmen of Glamorgan speak English lightly scented with the lilt of Welsh… a musical accent, but somewhat devious in its ambiguities.” (p.110) Ouch! Comparison of old and new abounds. Hillaby is, unsurprisingly, fascinated by the wild country around Port Eynon; and the bones of Paviland ‘Man’; a remarkable Paleolithic ancestor who lived and died many thousands of years ago. With refreshing clarity Hillaby describes the dilemma faced in 1823 following the discovery of bones that appeared to pre-date the age of the Earth (at that time Genesis had been dated to 4004 BC)!
So it is that at a steady walking pace, from what we were once, we discover who we are now. Travel too fast and clues remain obscure; knowledge remains unlearnt; an unhappy and detrimental state many times more unfortunate than tangible loss.
October 10, 2011
Beautiful language
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews