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In 1956 Eric Newby, then working in the London fashion trade, sent a telegram to his friend Hugh Carless, a diplomat: “Can you travel Nuristan June?” Neither man had climbed a serious mountain, and the book that came out of their attempt on Mir Samir in the Hindu Kush, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958), made his name. Before that he had sailed round Cape Horn as an eighteen-year-old apprentice on a Finnish windjammer, been captured on a raid on Sicily in 1942 and escaped from an Italian prison camp. Later he was travel editor of The Observer from 1964 to 1973, and for most of his journeys his wife Wanda came too. This guide covers his 10 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 key books · 1956–1994 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Eric Newby’s best-known books are A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958), The Last Grain Race (1956), Love and War in the Apennines (1971) and The Big Red Train Ride (1978). Start with A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush; below you will find all ten key books in order, plus the anthologies and picture books he edited.
Where to Start with Eric Newby
If you want his defining book
→ A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958) — two amateurs attempt a mountain in Afghanistan.
If you want his war story
→ Love and War in the Apennines (1971) — escape, hiding and Wanda in wartime Italy.
If you want the sea
→ The Last Grain Race (1956) — a windjammer round Cape Horn in 1938–39.
If you want a slow, settled book
→ A Small Place in Italy (1994) — a farmhouse in the Italian hills.
10 Eric Newby Books, in Order
The Last Grain Race
In 1938, aged eighteen, Newby signed on as an apprentice on the Moshulu, a four-masted Finnish barque, and sailed in the grain race from Australia to Europe by way of Cape Horn. The book records the work aloft, the crew and the weather of one of the last voyages of the commercial sailing ships.
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush
In 1956 Newby left the fashion business and, with the diplomat Hugh Carless, set out through the Panjshir valley into Nuristan to climb Mir Samir, a peak of about 19,000 feet. Neither had climbing experience, and they did not reach the summit. Near the end they meet the explorer Wilfred Thesiger, who watches them blow up their air-beds and says, “God, you must be a couple of pansies.” Later editions carry a prologue by Evelyn Waugh.
Something Wholesale
A comic memoir of the years after the war that Newby spent, on and off, in the women’s fashion business in London, including his time as a commercial traveller selling clothes around the country.
Slowly Down the Ganges
Newby and Wanda travel about 1,200 miles down the Ganges, from the plain at Hardwar to the Bay of Bengal. They go mostly in a series of unstable boats, with stretches by rail, bus and bullock cart, and spend nights on sandbanks and in remote villages.
Love and War in the Apennines
Captured in August 1942 during a Special Boat Section raid on Sicily, Newby was held at Chieti and then at Fontanellato near Parma. After the Italian armistice of September 1943 he escaped and was hidden in the Apennines with the help of Wanda Škof, a young Slovene who later became his wife, until he was recaptured in January 1944. In the US it was published as When the Snow Comes, They Will Take You Away, and it was filmed as In Love and War (2001).
The Big Red Train Ride
In 1977 Newby rode the Trans-Siberian Railway across the Soviet Union, some 5,900 miles and seven time zones, with Wanda, a photographer and an official guide. The book is about the passengers, the stops and the minders as much as the line itself.
A Traveller’s Life
Newby’s autobiography, from his London childhood through the war, the fashion trade and the journeys that became his books.
On the Shores of the Mediterranean
A year-long circuit of the Mediterranean with Wanda in the early 1980s, starting in Naples and going through Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco to Spain and Gibraltar. They travel by bus, train, hired car and, at one point, a motor hearse.
Round Ireland in Low Gear
Newby and Wanda cycle around Ireland on mountain bikes in the depths of winter, chosen to avoid other tourists, carrying old books about Ireland in their panniers. They meet rain, snow and gales, and Wanda is knocked off her bike twice.
A Small Place in Italy
From 1967 Newby and Wanda restored an old farmhouse in the foothills of the Apuan Alps in northern Italy. The book is about the house, the neighbours, the harvests and the slow business of being accepted in a village.
In What Order to Read Eric Newby
None of Newby’s books depends on another, so you can read by place. Publication order roughly follows his life, though: the windjammer voyage of 1938 comes first, the Afghan expedition next, and the war, which happened between them, only appears in 1971 in Love and War in the Apennines.
If you want the life in sequence, read The Last Grain Race, then Love and War in the Apennines, then Something Wholesale and A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. A Traveller’s Life fills in the gaps.
A reading path
1. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958)
2. The Last Grain Race (1956)
3. Love and War in the Apennines (1971)
4. The Big Red Train Ride (1978)
5. A Small Place in Italy (1994)
Everything Else Eric Newby Published
Beyond the 10 key books: 13 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Edited anthologies
3
3 books · 1966–1985
- 1966Time Off in Southern Italyan anthology he edited
- 1967My Favorite Stories of Travelan anthology he edited
- 1985A Book of Travellers’ Talestravel writing through the centuries, edited by Newby
Illustrated and reference books
7
7 books · 1968–1999
- 1968Grain Racephotographs of life on the Moshulu
- 1968Wonders of Britainwith Diana Petry
- 1969Wonders of Irelandwith Diana Petry
- 1975The Mitchell Beazley World Atlas of Explorationa history of exploration
- 1977Great Ascentsa narrative history of mountaineering
- 1989What the Traveller Sawhis own travel photographs
- 1999Learning the Ropesphotographs of his apprenticeship on the Moshulu
Collections
3
3 books · 1995–2003
- 1995A Merry Dance Around the Worldthe best of his travel writing
- 1999Departures and Arrivalsshorter travel pieces
- 2003A Book of Lands and Peopleshis last book
The years · 1919–2006
Quick facts about Eric Newby
- Known for
- Eric Newby is known for funny, self-deprecating accounts of journeys made by amateurs, above all his failed 1956 attempt on Mir Samir in Afghanistan.
- 1919
- Born in Barnes, London
- 1942
- Captured on a raid on Sicily
- 2006
- Dies in Guildford, Surrey
- Born
- 6 December 1919, Barnes, London
- Died
- 20 October 2006, Guildford, Surrey, aged 86
- Education
- St Paul’s School, London
- War
- Black Watch and Special Boat Section; prisoner of war in Italy; Military Cross
- Worked
- Fashion trade; travel editor of The Observer, 1964–1973
- Married
- Wanda Škof, the Slovene woman who helped him while he was on the run in 1943
- Honours
- CBE (1994); British Guild of Travel Writers Lifetime Achievement Award (2001)
The red mark is 1958: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, the book that made his name.
How Eric Newby Writes: The Amateur Abroad
Newby’s narrator is nearly always the least competent person present. In A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush he and Carless, neither of them a climber, set out for an unclimbed peak of about 19,000 feet, and the book is built on the gap between their plans and what the mountain allows. The joke usually lands on him rather than on the people he meets.
He writes in scenes with a lot of reported talk, and he lets other people have the best lines: Thesiger’s remark about the air-beds comes near the end of A Short Walk, and Geoffrey Moorhouse called the book’s last few sentences the funniest ending he had read. The comedy sits on top of hard physical experience: the work aloft on the Moshulu, months on the run in the Apennines in 1943.
Most of his later books are double portraits. Wanda travels with him down the Ganges, across Siberia, round the Mediterranean and through an Irish winter and is a character in her own right. William Dalrymple later called A Short Walk the book that virtually invented modern travel writing.
Frequently asked questions about Eric Newby’s books
How many books has Eric Newby written?
Around 23 under his name, including anthologies he edited and picture books. Ten are the key books on this page, from The Last Grain Race (1956) to A Small Place in Italy (1994); the other 13 are listed under “Everything else”.
What are Eric Newby’s books in order?
The Last Grain Race (1956), A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958), Something Wholesale (1962), Slowly Down the Ganges (1966), Love and War in the Apennines (1971), The Big Red Train Ride (1978), A Traveller’s Life (1982), On the Shores of the Mediterranean (1984), Round Ireland in Low Gear (1987) and A Small Place in Italy (1994).
Where should I start with Eric Newby?
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958). It is short, it is the book he is remembered for, and it shows his method: an unprepared expedition told against himself. If you prefer the war or the sea, start with Love and War in the Apennines or The Last Grain Race.
What is Eric Newby’s most famous book?
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958), about his 1956 attempt with Hugh Carless on Mir Samir in Afghanistan. William Dalrymple called it the book that virtually invented modern travel writing.
Did Newby and Carless climb Mir Samir?
No. Neither man had climbing experience, and they turned back before the summit. The failure, and how they got there, is the subject of the book.
What did Wilfred Thesiger say to Eric Newby?
Near the end of A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Newby and Carless meet the explorer Wilfred Thesiger in the Panjshir valley. Seeing them blow up their air-beds, Thesiger says, “God, you must be a couple of pansies.”
Is the film In Love and War based on Eric Newby?
Yes. In Love and War (2001) is based on Love and War in the Apennines (1971), with Callum Blue as Newby and Barbora Bobuľová as Wanda. It is not the 1996 film of the same name about Ernest Hemingway.
Who was Wanda Newby?
Wanda Škof, a Slovene anti-fascist who helped Newby while he was hiding in the Apennines after escaping from a prison camp in 1943. They married after the war, and she travelled with him on most of the journeys in his later books.
What did Eric Newby do in the Second World War?
He was commissioned into the Black Watch in 1940, served in India and North Africa, and joined the Special Boat Section. He was captured in August 1942 during a raid on Sicily and was awarded the Military Cross for that operation.
Is Eric Newby still alive?
No. He died on 20 October 2006 in Guildford, Surrey, aged 86.
Footnotes
- Eric Newby — Wikipedia
- Eric Newby obituary — The Scotsman
- Justin Marozzi on A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush — Slightly Foxed
- A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush — William Collins
- Slowly Down the Ganges — London Review Bookshop
- Hugh Carless — Wikipedia
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Can you travel Nuristan June?”
— Eric Newby, telegram to Hugh Carless (1956), in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958)
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