Three Books

MY recent reads include Round Ireland In Low Gear by Eric Newby, Border: A Journey To The Edge Of Europe by Kapka Kassabova and 'An Ill Journey For The Englishmen': Elis Gruffydd And The 1523 French Campaign Of The Duke Of Suffolk by The Pike and Shot Society.

Three books

Round Ireland details Newby's cycling through remote parts of Eire with his wife Wanda, noting a lot of history on the way.

As a travel book it is not a patch on his Hindu Kush and Down The Ganges efforts, but then they were very good indeed.

But at least it is readable, which is more than I can say for Border. I managed fewer than 70 pages of the latter before giving up in frustration at tosh about the evil eye, psychic healing and energy fields presented as established facts.

The Pike and Shot book was published by the society in 2006, as an inducement to renewing membership, if I recall correctly.

It has taken me 15 years to get around to reading the book, which mostly consists of two accounts, the main one by Welsh adventurer Elis Gruffydd, of military campaigning in France by Henry VIII's troops in the 15th year of the English king's reign.

Some of the spellings and quaint - to 21st -century eyes - writing take a little getting used to, but I think were well worth it.