On the shores of the Mediterranean - Eric Newby

'The inspired idea was to travel by land round the Mediterranean littoral. But where to start? Gibraltar? The Pyramids? Wanda, a Penelope who came too, a Sancho Panza for practicality to Eric Newby's very English version of the Don, puts him right: "Why don't you start at Naples and go clockwise … instead of dashing off in all directions like a lunatic?" A splendid book. Its author is a Ulysses, the book an Odyssey.'
THE GUARDIAN

'On the Shores of the Mediterranean is formidably many-sided and densely packed; and insight, tearing spirits, an eye for the incongruous, insatiable curiosity and an unflagging narrative gift turn it into one of the most stimulating and rewarding travel books to be seen for a long time.'
SPECTATOR

'Keeping up with Eric Newby, every breathless puff and pant of it, is worth it all the way. His vitality, which was always more than most people's, gets bigger and his writing richer and funnier. He grabs life by the handful, cramming in all he can. It is a mark of Newby's magnetism that you are so willingly carried along, at such tremendous pace. He takes a deep breath and delivers a massive lungful of history, geography, opinion, experience and sheer fun, and leaves you gasping in gratitude and wonder.'
THE OBSERVER

'A feast that combines and juxtaposes many different textures and flavours in an inimitable blend of zest and consummate skill. Eric Newby is an extremely elegant writer, beautifully paced and rhythmic.'
DAILY TELEGRAPH

'A compulsive and immensely erudite teacher, he instructs us in the post-operative treatment of castration, the salinity of the Dardanelles, the incidence of rupture among grape pickers, the history of Jerusalem, the Moorish conquests of Spain and the best route up Mount Olympus in a mist. He is incapable of writing a dull sentence.'
NEW STATESMAN

'Mr Newby has – quite rightly – established himself as one of the sharpest, funniest and most boisterously entertaining of all travel writers.'
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

'Whatever Eric Newby writes, I read with uncritical pleasure. The Newby travels are classics of their kind.'
FINANCIAL TIMES