Talking about 'looking' over on the other site today reminds me that I haven't mentioned Chiang Yee's The Silent Traveller in Oxford since I read it. The author was a consummate observer, seeing details others would not, and from them constructing an atmospheric and - despite wartime privations - joyous portrait of a time and place. Any man who can begin a chapter with the words "I LOVE rain" is my sort of writer, and indeed he describes himself later as "an odd person who indulges himself by taking pleasure in things not noticed by those of a more objective turn of mind". That's spot-on, and the book is charming.
So glad the Silent Traveller is going to delight a whole new audience of armchair travellers! I have almost all his books, original copies (says she, a trifle smugly!)
Posted by: Margaret Powling | 01 October 2014 at 07:23 PM
Wonderful, Margaret! I'm certainly keen to read more.
Posted by: Cornflower | 01 October 2014 at 07:56 PM