MURPHY, Dervla ~ Full Tilt Ireland to India with a Bicycle.

FIRST UK PRINTING. John Murray, London: 1965.

8vo., green boards lettered and decorated in gilt to spine; together in the vibrant pictorial dustwrapper featuring a wraparound image by Val Biro; proliferated throughout with numerous black and white photographs and maps, mostly by the author herself; THE BOOK near-fine, lightly pushed at spine ends, one small dent to lower board; lightly spotted to fore-edge and end leaves; THE WRAPPER clipped, but else-near fine, remaining clean and bright, with minimal creasing, rubbing, and chipping to extremities. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. Murphy was just ten years old when she first conceived of the idea of cycling to India after being given a bicycle and an atlas for her birthday. Twenty one years later, in January 1963, 'one of the worst winters in memory', she left from Dunkirk, travelling across Europe, Persia, Afghanistan, over the Himalayas to Pakistan, and finally into India. This account of her travels is littered with stories of the experiences she had while en route to her destination - including a fight on an afghan bus, a cow who showed her where to cross a raging river, and her struggles with hunger, heat, and extreme cold along the way. A huge number of other travel books followed but this remains her first, and perhaps most enduring work, described in 'The New Yorker' as a "vivid journal [which] would have delighted Cervantes with its almost incredible surprises". A lovely copy.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine