And this being Jules Verne’s birthday, why not go and reread one of his books – or watch a movie basedon one of Verne’s books?
And KeithTaylor mentioned Michael Strogoff, and that’s quite a nice choice for Karavansara: an adventure yarn, set in the heart of Eurasia, and featuring chases, swashbuckling, heroics and derring-do.
All in a neat package, courtesy of one of the fathers of science fiction – but here applying his skills to a spy thriller of sorts.
It is also one of the titles on which my generation cut its teeth as readers. But we’ll get to that. Continue reading
Category Archives: Companions on the Road
Robert E. Howard’s Birthday
It is Robert E. Howard’s birthday.
Is there anything I can say about Howard that was not said already, and better than I ever could? Unlikely.
I could once again say that Howard was one of those writers that I read as a kid, and made me say
This! This is what I want to write.
And I did – I wrote some horrid Conan pastiches when I was fifteen, and they are dead and buried, and it’s better that way. Continue reading
Dorothy Malone
Maybe I’m strange, but when I think about The Big Sleep I do not think about Lauren Bacall or Marta Vickers.
No, I usually think about the bookstore salesgirl.
Dorothy Malone was gorgeous in The Big Sleep like she was in so many other movies, including the 1956 drama Written in the Wind, for which she won an Academy Award.
She passed away on the 19th of January, at the age of 92.
We want to remember her like this…
The man from the Nile
In July, 1878, when serving as lieutenant in H. I. H. the Crown Prince Rudolph’s regiment, the 19th Foot, on the Bosnian frontier, I received a letter from General Gordon, inviting me to come to the Sudan and take service with the Egyptian Government, under his direction.
Rudolf Carl von Slatin, later known as Slatin Pasha, was born near Vienna in 1857. In 1873, while attending a commercial school, he heard about a German bookseller in Cairo that needed an assistant, and he left for Egypt.
He ended up in Karthoum, and he traveled extensively before he had to return to Austria to fulfill his conscription in the army.
While in the Austrian army, he was contacted by Gemneral Gordon, ad mentioned in the opening of his 1896 best-seller Fire and Sword in the Sudan.
Because when he finally accepted Gordon’s invitation, things got interesting: appointed governor of Dara, and when rebellion erupted in 1882, Slating tried to face the music, but without much success. Continue reading
An interview with Christina Dodwell
So, I am opening this 2018 with a something big, and of which I’m very proud and happy.
And here’s a little introduction…
Christina Dodwell’s been one of my real-life heroes for the last 25 years, ever since I discovered her books in a London bookstore (Hatchard’s, if you really must know).
My personal favorites are An Explorer’s Handbook (great fun, and a great resource for a writer) and A Traveller in China (because of my old fascination with China and all that — we discussed this already), followed suit by A Traveler on Horseback in Eastern Turkey and Iran.
Now, the great news: I was granted permission to reprint an interview that was originally posted on the website of the Long Riders’ Guild, in which Miss Dodwell talks about her experiences as a traveler and an explorer.
I am extremely grateful to Christina Dodwell, to Basha O’Reilly who conducted the original interview, and everybody at the Long Riders’ Guild, for this great opportunity.
So, here goes. I’m sure you guys will enjoy the ride. Continue reading
Karavansara 