Eric Newby, 86, British Travel Writer
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British writer Eric Newby, author of the travel classic “A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush,” died Friday. He was 86.
Born and raised in London, Newby gave up a job in advertising in 1938 to sail on a Finnish grain ship to Australia and back, a voyage he later recounted in “The Last Grain Race.”
Newby served with the elite Special Boat Section during World War II. Captured during an operation off the Italian coast in 1942, he spent three years in a prisoner of war camp. He managed to escape, and before being recaptured met a young Italian-Slovenian woman, Wanda Skof, whom he married in 1946.
After the war Newby worked in the fashion business before setting out with almost no mountaineering training to climb Afghanistan’s Mir Samir. The journey, alternately funny and thrilling, is recounted in “A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush” (1958), still in print.
Newby continued to travel, frequently accompanied by his wife. His travel books include “Slowly Down the Ganges,” “Round Ireland in Low Gear,” “Love and war in the Apennines” about his wartime experience and “On the shores of the Mediterranean.”
