The Death of Eric Newby

Eric Newby died on Friday, and I felt sad at the news. He is probably one of the reasons I'm a travel writer. I was a teenager when I found a copy of his book A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush in a second-hand bookshop. I think it was the title that appealed to me. It was wonderful, funny, evocative, beautifully descriptive of people and places. I knew I never had it in me to do that kind of adventurous journey, but it opened up to me the idea that there were other worlds out there to be explored.

When I first started writing full-time doing general magazine pieces, I always fancied doing a bit of travel writing. Well, who wouldn't? But everyone I met who had tried it all made it sound impossible to break into. Then I went to a travel writing evening held at The Observer newspaper, part of a series of evenings where they wanted to show off their new headquarters and to encourage closer ties with their readers.

Eric Newby was there, as he had been their Travel Editor and was still writing for them. He was brilliantly anarchic, disagreeing with their current Travel Editor Desmond Balmer on several things in an admirable 'devil-may-care' kind of a way. He and his wife Wanda circulated afterwards, and Eric encouraged me to try travel writing. I think he'd had a few. I can't remember what he said – I think I'd had a few too as I was nervous – but I remember coming away feeling more positive about trying.

I did try, and was lucky enough to sell the first travel piece I ever wrote, to The Daily Telegraph. I began suggesting ideas to them. One was to interview travel writers on how they kept notes when they were traveling, and how did they make sure they didn't lose them. I wrote to Eric Newby, and he rang me up. 'This won't take long, will it?' he said in a gruff manner which immediately made me nervous. Thirty minutes later he was still regaling me with stories. As I'm almost at the end of my Blog word-count for today, I'll tell you some tomorrow.

To read Part 2 click here

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Read a blog about that other great travel writer Bruce Chatwin.

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