Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle

I have mixed feelings about this book. I was excited to read it. It makes me sad that countries like Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan are unwise for me to visit. I was looking forward to the virtual tour.The travel writing is excellent, but some of the author's choices and opinions are ones that I profoundly disagree with. She is brave but somewhat reckless and she gets into real trouble sometimes, including rape attempts and getting lost on glaciers. She freely expresses her opinion about the countries she visits. I wish she had more solidarity with women in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She is privileged as a visitor to socialize with men who keep their wives and daughters in seclusion. Sometimes I agree with her opinions about what she sees, but frequently I don't.It is clear from her narrative just how different the mid Twentieth century was from the twenty first. It is interesting to cross borders with her into Iran under the Shah and post partition Pakistan and India. But I am not sure we could be friends.

Reading this books is a fascinating way to travel with Dervla through central Asian and into India, circa 1962. I really enjoyed her eloquently stated commentary and the philosophical insights into her observations. I think I will have to agree about her on the political boundaries and on ancient vs. modern civilizations. This is also an excellent snapshot of that part of the world in 1962. Obviously a lot has changed since then.Riding a bike from Ireland to India, what a magnificent feat in itself! Her observations and reflections on the ancient, remote cultures she comes across in Afganistan and Pakistan are recorded very beautifully and emphatically. She strives to consider all perspectives and in the process adds many dimensions to the story of her travels. Her books is full of deep insights that I think a lucky few in the world will have the opportunity to conclude themselves. As a previous reviewer has put it, "Why isn't Murphy more famous?" I wonder the same! My only guess is that perhaps she hasn't made the rounds on the American circuit... where the mass media machine is more far reaching and dominating.Overall the books is beautifully written in my opinion. Being a native South Asian myself, and having lived in the high peaks of the Himalayas, I find it to be a really interesting foreign perspective on our cultures. Her prose are even more relevant today as swift modernization has really done more harm than good to the indigenous peoples at least on the Indian side of the mighty Himalayas. Meanwhile, war has taken it's toll on the Pakistani/Afghani side.If you are reading this, thank you Dervla, for sharing your beautiful journey with the world. It is an inspiration.Before I conclude this review, I'll share this brief excerpt from the book, one of my few favorites: "The more I see of unmechanized places and people, the more convinced I become that machines have done incalculable damage by unbalancing the relationship between Man and Nature. The mere fact that we think and talk as we do about Nature is symptomatic. For us to refer to Nature as a separate entity--something we admire or avoid or study or paint--shows how far we've removed ourselves from it.... I suppose all of scientific advances are a wonderful boost for the superior intellect of the human race but what those advances are doing to us seems to me quite literally tragic. After all, only a handful of people are concerned in the excitement and stimulation of discovering and developing, while millions lead feebler and more synthetic lives because of the achievements of that handful... people now use less than half their potential forces because "Progress" has deprived them of the incentive to live fully. I don't know what the end result of all this "progress" will be--something pretty dire, I should think. We remain part of Nature, however startling our scientific advances."

This is a great story, but this edition (Speaking Tiger Books) is not something to keep or pass on to friends. Several pages are repeated and at least one page is missing. The "book" didn't survive the first reading. Evidently, it wasn't intended to be sold in the Americas.

My 12yo is enjoying reading this book. She is left with vivid impressions of place. The sense of determination and danger and adventure are felt!

I actually am only a couple chapters in, but this has really captured my attention. Unusual, funny and sophisticated, I can’t wait for the rest of the ride! No pun intended.

Dervla’s legacy begins with this first book, Full Tilt. A journalistic/diary approach, she captured her journey and insightful ruminating of the people, places, and religious and political observations with her daily missives.

This cheaply made edition is a travesty. On the copyright page it states "for sale in South Asia only." I'm sorry for people who live there if this is the quality of books they are sold. I enjoyed the book itself, but this edition is terrible.I'd return it, but Amazon seems to think that it has yet to be delivered to me a month after I ordered it.

"Full Tilt" - a very interesting account of Author's bicycle journey from Ireland all the way through Europe and over towards and ending in India, with no companions. Her account of Afghanistan was the most fascinating part of the book for me, and her delight in these people was lovely to read. I would have preferred better maps, those provided are unsatisfactory and I thought somewhat vague. Dervla was very brave, respectful, curious, but somewhat naive and even foolhardy at times; cycling over one mountain range she could have died of hunger because it was totally uninhabited and she was unable to get food or shelter. Of course, she didn't cycle ALL the way to India, she got rides along the way. The thing that would strike a reader today, is her casual smoking, and exchange of cigarettes for the hospitality so generously given along the way as people refused to take her money. We must remember her experiences back then, in the 1940's could not be duplicated today because of the increase in guns, drugs other dangers. For that reason, if no other, this is a very interesting book, by a most brave and courageous woman.

I'd really been looking forward to this since I saw it accidentally whilst nosing in a high street bookshop so I bought it on Kindle and dived in as I'm a huge Indophile. Sadly there was very little about India itself and what there was was rather derogatory. She mainly went on about how much she loved Afghanistan and the people which was all well and good but just not the area I was interested in reading about. It also stopped very abruptly. She kept on about how she would do this and that on the way back but then we got to India and she says she's going to stay a few months until the weather is better for the return. The End. Not what I was expecting or hoping for.

From the first page I was gripped. I read a chapter or so per night and was always gobsmacked by the unending challenges that Dervla met - and overcame, often beyond most peoples capability. Her manner in mixing in with the vast variety of people, often poor tribal ones others top brass, was always with such ease. Her favourite country on the whole trip was Afghanistan - both from a scenic viewpoint but even more by her love of the ordinary people of very diverse kinds, who always treated her with such welcoming kindness. So different from our received wisdom. Do read this book, best for a long time for me.

Dervla writes very well and doesn't dally in either her writing or in her cycling covering significant distances each day. It's is a joy to read and a wonderful insight into a world and countries that sadly due to politics and conflict zones are no longer accessible to an ordinary person. Highly Recommended.

I found this a great read - partly for the geography, partly for the history, but mostly for the sheer adventure. She takes on some very difficult journeys in brutal conditions, yet seems able to overlook the hardships and recount all of her successes in a such cheerful, engaging way.

Reading this book turned me into a cycle tourist. Readable by anyone who would not even think of cycling to India by the character of the author, a no-nonsense Irish woman, with a skill that makes details of her journey so vivid that they remain imprinted on your mind. Oh yes, it's funny too.