Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle

Full Tilt is a book by Irish author Dervla Murphy, about an overland cycling trip through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.[1][2] It was first published by John Murray in 1965.[3] The book is usually given the subtitle Ireland to India With a Bicycle, but has been called Dunkirk to Delhi by bicycle[4] and from Dublin to Delhi with a bicycle.[5]

Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle
Cover of John Murray first edition (1965)
AuthorDervla Murphy
PublisherJohn Murray
Publication date
1965
Pages235 (first edition)
OCLC773284636
915.4
Followed byTibetan foothold 

Full Tilt has been described as both one of the best cycling books,[6][7] and one of the best travel books.[8][9]

Summary

In 1963 Murphy set off on her first long-distance bicycle tour, a self-supported trip from Ireland to India. Taking a pistol along with other equipment aboard her Armstrong Cadet men's bicycle (named Rozinante in allusion to Don Quixote's steed, and always known as Roz), she passed through Europe during one of the worst winters in years. In Yugoslavia, Murphy began to write a journal instead of mailing letters. In Iran she used her gun to frighten off a group of thieves, and "used unprintable tactics" to escape from an attempted rapist at a police station. She received her worst injury of the journey on a bus in Afghanistan, when a rifle butt hit her and fractured three ribs; however, this only delayed her for a short while. She wrote appreciatively about the landscape and people of Afghanistan, calling herself "Afghanatical" and claiming that the Afghan "is a man after my own heart". In Pakistan, she visited Swat (where she was a guest of the last wali, Miangul Aurangzeb) and the mountain area of Gilgit. The final leg of her trip took her through the Punjab region and over the border to India towards Delhi. Her journal was later published by John Murray in 1965. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]

Publication
  • 1983: Century (London), 235pp, ISBN 0712600752.[18]
  • 1985: Isis (Oxford), 305pp, ISBN 1850890471.[19]
  • 1995 (as Full tilt: Dunkirk to Delhi by bicycle): Flamingo (London), 244pp, ISBN 0006548008.[4]
  • 2004 (as Full tilt: from Dublin to Delhi with a bicycle): John Murray, 244pp, ISBN 0719565146.[5]

References
  1. Harvey, Andrew (1 June 1986). "Summer Reading; Travel". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  2. Graves, Clifford (January 1969). "The Perils of Dervla Murphy". The Best of Bicycling. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  3. "Full tilt: Ireland to India with a bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  4. "Full tilt: Dunkirk to Delhi by bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  5. "Full tilt: from Dublin to Delhi with a bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  6. Penn, Rob (25 March 2016). "The 10 best cycling books". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  7. Day, Jon (13 July 2018). "On your bike: the best books about cycling". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  8. Dalrymple, William; Theroux, Paul (16 September 2011). "My favourite travel book, by the world's greatest travel writers". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  9. Keenan, Steve (17 September 2009). "The 20 best travel books of the past century". The Times. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  10. Verschoyle, Moira (19 June 1965). "Ireland to India". The Irish Times. p. 8. I am filled with admiration for her courage, resource, good nature and unselfconsciousness ... the charm of sponteneity and the ring of absolute truth,
  11. "Full Tilt By Dervla Murphy". The Observer. 11 July 1965. p. 22. Punctures, broken ribs, hornets and scorpions notwithstanding, it was a high old time between Miss Murphy and her Islamic hosts ... her book is sensible, warm-hearted, unfinicky.
  12. "Review". The New Yorker. This vivid journal ... would have delighted Cervantes with its almost incredible surprises: a valley full of birds the size of butterflies and butterflies as big as robins; a village where the cattle eat apricots and the villagers eat clover ... Somewhere between Kabul and Jalalabad, she thought she was dreaming when she woke from a roadside nap to find that nomads had raised a tent over her to shield her from the sun.
  13. "Review". Homes & Gardens. She avoided wolves (animal and human), floods, robbery, had three ribs broken in a brawl in an Afghan bus; waded across an ice torrent, hugging a cow ... suffered extremes of heat and cold, ate everything, liked almost everybody
  14. Lane, Margaret. "Review". I don't know when I've enjoyed the account of a journey more. A great part of the enchantment of her book is that it is so good humoured and so funny. I laughed ... and learned a good deal ... one follows her with pleasure ... a brave, intelligent, rare and amusing human being.
  15. "By bicycle it's a long way to Kabul". Irish Independent. 18 September 1965. A journey with incalculable hardships and perils. It is unexpected, but then everything Dervla Murphy does is unexpected ... an enchantment that holds the reader as engrossed as would an exciting thriller.
  16. "Review". The Sunday Times. Warmly described, and with a lack of self-regard that immediately endears her to the reader.
  17. "Full tilt: Ireland to India with a bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  18. "Full tilt: Ireland to India with a bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  19. "Full tilt: Ireland to India with a bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  20. "Full tilt: Ireland to India with a bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  21. "Full tilt: Ireland to India with a bicycle". British Library. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
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