Big Red Train Ride

Eric Newby will be familiar to many readers of travel literature as the man who gave us A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush and Slowly Down the Ganges. This book details his journey - taken much later in his life (1977) along the Trans-Siberian Railway. My copies of all these books are in the Picador Books range so not only look nice lined up on the bookshelf but they all are accompanied by photos - usually ones taken by the author himself - interspersed throughout the book.Now it is easy to understand why this book does not come immediately to mind when Eric Newbys name is mentioned. Basically a lot of the book is taken up with decrying the way he and his touring party of his wife Wanda and an unconnected other traveller were effectively led around by the nose as much as possible by the Soviet authorities. The constant paranoia in terms of what they could and couldn't photograph, in terms of their interactions and the various 'attractions' they were taken to obviously grated tremendously on the group. Furthermore this is back in the days before Vladivostok was open to foreign travellers being as it was the home of the Soviet Pacific Fleet.What this means is that outside of the reader coming to share the frustration of the author with the idiotic bureaucracy in the first instance and in the second means that Newby has had to pad out the book with lots of historical anecdotes as to the building of the railway itself. Now it must be said that this is all interesting stuff, the building of this railway being a particularly gruelling affair, but it's not really what the reader of an Eric Newby book wants to read, nor I get the feeling is it what he wanted to have to write to come up with enough material for a book.Despite this the humour of the man does shine through at times though the quips to tend to be more barbed than usual. The book overall is a useful addition to your bookshelf because it is a great way of learning about a snapshot in time. As I write in 2017 doing the Trans-Siberian is vastly easier - more a case of having the cash and getting enough time off from your employer than anything else and a lot of the hardships in terms of food supplies that Newby went through are null and void now. But that's what makes this probably a 'must read' for anyone about to head off on the journey as it will give you a glimpse of what the journey was like during the Cold War.

One reviewer suggests that the reader would want to just pick up and go after reading Eric and Wanda Newby's account of their ride through Russia on the Big Red Train.It certainly did not have that affect on this reviewer, even if by reading it I did become a `fellow traveler' for a while. Instead it developed a growing sense of sheer relief that never again would one have to try, and usually fail, to contain those towering rages of sheer frustration and the resulting bad manners that the Russia of this trip and time created in this visitor.Now mostly passed and gone, like one of Newby's Siberian stations with the attendant Station Mistress overseeing departures at the full attention, that Russia was as full of obstructions and stupidities as this book is full of interesting facts, apt and forbidden photographs and sparkling descriptions. Showing far more toleration than we could ever have managed and using his wit as a rapier sharp foil to fight off visits to wire factories, to parry multiple obstructions and carve up inedible meals Eric Newby passed through a Russia that is also now mostly and thankfully past.His book's dedication is a doubled-edged plea from the author for empathy ... to the Peoples of Siberia who have to live there.

I found this fascinating because of all the little annoyances the writer had to deal with being accompanied on his trip with a government official. It was a little cynical but it was done in a humorous way.

If you are planning on riding the rails on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, this book will warm up your engine and give you a realistic idea of what to expect.

This was my first Eric Newby book, and I was hooked. Newby and wife Wanda travel throughout the Soviet Union searching hopefully (and often in vain) for a decent meal, a warm blanket, and helpful railroad staff. They never really succeed, but the journey they bring us along on is worth the trouble. It's just plain funny. Newby doesn't lob jokes at the reader, but tosses them off underhand for the most part, so the humor creeps up on you. He knows how to go for the bellylaugh, but most of the book has a dryer touch. Newby doesn't go for cheap shots, he's not mean spirited in the least, but his semi-sympathetic, long-suffering, and sometimes hung-over take on exploring the side roads of Russia is addictive fun. I have now followed eric and Wanda on many journeys and am still enthralled. Discovering an unread Newby is like getting a surprise birthday gift. This is a great introduction into the globetrotting adventures of Eric and Wanda.

I had been looking forward to reading this but was a little disappointed at the final chapters. The author had either run out of ideas or had been told to cut it short after x000 words. I shall however try another of his books.

Not as good as I expected but it will do.

Mr. Newby does not write with the sparkle of his previous books.

He is a great writer - love his books

So pleased to be able to find some old Eric Newby books for my husband who is a great fan of the author