Jonathan Keates

Grandmother’s footsteps

The Island that Dared, by Dervla Murphy<br /> <br type="_moz" />

issue 22 November 2008

The Island that Dared, by Dervla Murphy

Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen, where the deuce can we go without Dervla Murphy getting there before us? This miracle of ubiquity has rattled from end to end of the Andes, tracked the Indus to its source, ridden a mule through Ethiopia and a bicycle across Romania. If her curiosity, stamina and resourcefulness are remarkable, so too is her modesty, a virtue not always uppermost among travel-writers. She demands no special praise from us for having endured the rigours of her various journeys and this lack of ego-preening lends a greater authenticity to the overall atmosphere.

Murphy enthusiasts should not be fooled by the opening chapters of The Island That Dared, in which the author figures as a cheery old card jaunting off for a few weeks in Cuba with her family, a tourist rather than a traveller.

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