Slowly Down the Ganges - Eric Newby

This is the story of the 1,200-mile journey made by Eric Newby and his wife down the holy river of India, from Hardwar where it enters the great plain down to where the waters of the Hooghly finally flow into the Bay of Bengal. Travelling in a variety of boats, and sometimes by rail, bus and bullock cart, staying on sandbanks, in villages and towns, they encountered an engaging assortment of characters and the dusty enchantment of India. Always the continuity lay with Ganga Ma - Mother Ganges - herself: pure and sacred to millions; shifting, tranquil and evocatively described with Newby's brilliant talent. 'Impossible to describe adequately the flavour of this delicious story . . . vintage Newby delicately salted with The Wind in the Willows and Three Men in a Boat' Guardian 'No journey into an unmapped interior to carry the word or find a lost explorer was more obstinately seen through to its end than this do-it-yourself pleasure trip . . . Mr Newby has fine descriptive gifts and a deft touch in casual portraiture' Times Literary Supplement.