Online event to celebrate the Launch of John Murray Journeys
On July 11th 2022 we teamed up with John Murray Press for an online event celebrating the republication of three titles for their Journeys series: In a Land Far from Home by Syed Mujtaba Ali, introduced by Taran Khan; Desert Soul by Isabelle Eberhardt, introduced by William Atkins; and Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand by Ella Christie, introduced by Caroline Eden.
The event was hosted by Nick Hunt (author of Outlandish) with Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award-winning authors; William Atkins, Taran Khan and Caroline Eden who introduce us to these three remarkable stories, sharing with us the reasons they love them and reading some short extracts. We were also joined by translator Nazes Afroz who translated In a Land Far from Home from Bengali to English.
Bengali writer Syed Mujtaba Ali travelled from colonial India to take up a teaching post in Afghanistan in 1927. He lived for two years in Kabul, documenting the life of the city, and befriended everyone from his loyal manservant Abdur Rahman to the king’s brother.
But peace did not last long: in 1929 a tribal uprising forced the king from power, and Kabul fell to bandits and conservative mullahs from the mountains. The brutal siege that Ali endured has uncanny historical parallels to the events of 2021, but through the deprivation of war he never lost his characteristic humour or compassion.
Through Khiva to Golden Samarkand
In 1912, Ella R. Christie – a veteran Scottish traveller who had made expeditions to Kashmir, Tibet, Malaya, Borneo, China, Korea and Japan – steamed across the Caspian Sea to explore Central Asia. Her travels through the Russian Empire took her to the Silk Road cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, and she became the first British woman to visit the Khanate of Khiva.
Eschewing the cloak and dagger intrigues of a previous generation of Great Game spies, Christie was a meticulous observer of the everyday – whether meeting khans, dining with generals or vividly chronicling market life – shortly before war and revolution swept that world away.
Isabelle Eberhardt’s writing chronicles, in passionate prose, her travels in French colonial North Africa at the turn of the 20th century. Often dressed in male clothing and assuming a man’s name, she worked as a war correspondent, married a Muslim non-commissioned officer, converted to Islam and survived an assassination attempt, all before dying in a flash flood at the age of 27.
Desert Soul brings together her ‘Wanderings’ and ‘The Daily Journals’, detailing the ecstatic highs and the depressive lows of her short but unique and extraordinary life.
All titles in the John Murray Journeys series are available from Stanfords for £12.99.
You can listen to the launch of John Murray Journeys on the Stanfords Travel Podcast or via the link below: