||boek: Per boot naar China|Slow boats to China|vertaling: Parma van Loon|Hollandia Reisverhalen

||door: Gavin Young

||taal: nl
||jaar: 1989
||druk: ?
||pag.: 514p
||opm.: paperback|zo goed als nieuw|pagina 1 bevat vlek

||isbn: 90-6045-598-3
||code: 1:000435

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Per boot naar China ---

Zeven maanden in 1980 deed Gavin Young erover als passagier op de 21 vrachtschepen van Piraeus (de haven van Athene) naar Kanton (China) te komen. Een reis vol avonturen, opwinding en kleurrijke gebeurtenissen. In per boot naar China geeft Young niet alleen een beeld van het reizen, van schepen, kapiteins en bemanningsleden maar ook de havens die hij heeft bezocht en van de mensen die daar wonen. Dit boek is geïllustreerd met tekeningen en 11 kaarten.

• 'Een ongewoon en fascinerend boek' --Hammond Innes in de Guardian
• 'Stormen, vlooien, piraten, slecht eten en bureaucraten... Young heeft dat alles doorstaan om ons daarmee te amuseren.' --Anthony Burgess in de Observer
• 'Een grote vergaarbak van boeiende verhalen' --Economist

[bron: https--www.stichtingboekenwerk.nl]

Voor zijn reis per (vracht)boot van Piraeus naar Kanton had Gavin Young in 1980 7 maanden en 21 schepen nodig. Het verslag ervan beslaat ruim 500 bladzijden. De reis verliep dan ook niet bepaald rechtlijnig: schipbreuk, muiterij, piraterij en ander onheil werden zijn deel. Young is een heel boeiend schrijver. Hij put voor zijn boeken uitvoerig uit zijn herinneringen, en ervaringen tijdens zijn jarenlange journalistieke werk, tijdens oorlogen en revoluties in de hele wereld. Zowel de reis als dit boek erover wekken bewondering. Het biedt verrassingen van de eerste tot de laatste pagina: mensen en hun trucs, bureaucraten, vlooien, sores, gevaren. En de ellende van het reizen. We krijgen ook veel informatie over landen, streken en volkeren, natuurlijk en organisch opgenomen in het grote relaas, en dat telkens weer anders kleurend.

[bron: https--boeken.tweedehands.net]

It was a simple idea, the kind all of us have had at one time or another. Take a series of ships of different sizes and kinds, go where they lead and see what happens. Inspired by great sea writers like Jack London, Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad, Gavin Young decided he would port-hop to some far destination on the other side of the world. The end of the line would be China.

"With its magical evocation of the past and the present, of far-off lands and people, vivid skies and bizarre flora and fauna, SLOW BOATS TO CHINA is compulsively readable and a travel book of rare distinction." (Publisher's Source)

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

just can't visit the Oxfam bookshop without coming away with a bunch of old travel books. This one, written by a one time war correspondent for The Observer is the tale of Young's attempt to travel from Greece to China only by boat. This took place in 1979 when he discovers he is almost too late, passenger shipping having been almost completely killed off by air travel. Indeed, if it wasn't for his Observer connections and general public school English gentleman background, he wouldn't even have got half way. Lucky for him, the entire old boy network of the ex-British Empire mostly find him ships, from a board bunk in a tiny local trader to the owner's cabin in a huge container carrier. For the most part, it's pretty exciting (and often dangerous) stuff and I often had to stop so I could go read up more about various areas he passed through. Overall, it gets a bit depressing, knowing this sort of thing is completely out of bounds to your average traveller. I'm about to pick up the sequel, Slow Boats Home.

Marceline Smith [source: https--www.goodreads.com]

Time absented itself as I read

"A Turkish Cypriot friend once said to me "There are men here of thirty who are still virgins. Muslim tradition prevents them, on pain of death or a terrible beating at the hands of the girl's brothers or father, from touching a Turkish girl. They'd do anything to get their hands on a foreign girl, but, of course it's not always possible. You have no idea of the intensity of the frustration here."(p.68)."

Plu ca change, sadly. This enthralling book was first published in 1981, but just there Young describes exactly the unfortunate product of a serious cultural clash which has recently (New Year 2016) been hitting the headlines in Germany.

Gavin Young kept his eyes wide open and lived off his wits. Travelling light he sought the necessary official permissions for the series of passages on merchant shipping that would eventually, after many fascinating and hair-raising incidents, convey him from Athens to Canton.

Officialdom varied in swiftness and helpfulness of response. This was absolutely not a journey that any lone female could ever have countenanced safely then or now. Voyeuristically, I thoroughly enjoyed Maxwell's at times heart-stopping, extraordinary adventures, from pink gin in Bombay; to his wonderful, wonderful description, from sea-stained notes, of cargo crashing into the light-metal (sole) lifeboat; to his abilities to survive near-death and other such dicey turns of fate. Careful, accurate observation, swift assessment and cool analysis of highly unpromising situations ... and what felt like an awful lot of luck ... enabled him to survive to finally write this compelling book. I look forward to reading "Slow Boats Home" (1985).

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]

--- Over (foto 2): Gavin Young ---

Gavin David Young (24 April 1928 - 18 January 2001) was a journalist and travel writer.

He was born in Bude, Cornwall, England. His father, Gavin Young, was a lieutenant colonel in the Welsh Guards. Daphne, his mother, was the daughter of Sir Charles Leolin Forestier-Walker, Bt, of Monmouthshire. Young spent most of his youth in Cornwall and South Wales. He graduated from Oxford University, where he studied modern history.

Young spent two years with the Ralli Brothers shipping company in Basra in Iraq before living with the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. He fashioned his experiences into a book, Return to the Marshes (1977). In 1960, from Tunis, he joined The Observer of London as a foreign correspondent, and was the Observer's correspondent in Paris and New York. He had covered fifteen wars and revolutions throughout the world, and worked for The Guardian and was a travel writer. Young died in London on 18 January 2001; he was 72 years old.

Selected works

• Return to the Marshes: Life with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, 1977 - travels with the Marsh Arabs of Iraq (photographs by Nik Wheeler)
• Iraq: Land of Two Rivers, 1980 - travels in Mesopotamia
• Slow Boats to China, 1981 - travel round the world by water transport
• Halfway Around the World: An Improbable Journey, 1983
• Slow Boats Home, 1985 - travel round the world by water transport
• Worlds Apart, 1987 - a collection of journalistic articles
• Beyond Lion Rock, 1987 - the story of Cathay Pacific Airways
• "Introduction" to a new edition of Uttermost Part of the Earth by Lucas Bridges, 1987
• In Search of Conrad, 1991 (Thomas Cook Travel Book Award)
• From Sea to Shining Sea: Present-day Journey into America's Past, 1996
• A Wavering Grace: A Vietnamese Family in War and Peace, 1997 - a Vietnamese family in war and peace
• Eye on the World, 1999

[source: wikipedia]

Name: Gavin Young
Role: Journalist
Education: University of Oxford
Died: January 18, 2001, London, United Kingdom
Books: Slow Boats to China, Return to the marshes, Slow boats home, In search of Conrad, Beyond Lion Rock

[source: https--alchetron.com/Gavin-Young]