Dervla Murphy
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Dervla Murphy (born 28 November 1931, Ireland) is a female touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books.
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[edit] Early life
Murphy grew up in the small town of Lismore, County Waterford, to parents she describes as "Dublin bourgeoisie". [1] Her father was the local librarian and her mother suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. [2] From an early age she wanted to travel; she claims that for her tenth birthday she received an atlas and a bicycle and decided to cycle to India.[3] However, she left school at 14 and spent much of the next 16 years taking care of her invalid mother. In her 20s, her wanderlust had to be satisfied with month-long cycling trips to France, Spain and Germany. [2] But the death of her mother in 1962 left her free to make a longer trip.[3]
[edit] Travel writing
In the midst of a record-setting blizzard in 1963, Dervla Murphy packed a pistol aboard Roz, her Armstrong Cadet bicycle and set off on her first international bicycle tour - a completely self-supported solo trip from Ireland to India. In Yugoslavia, she began keeping a journal instead of mailing letters home. That journal was later published as her first book Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, in which, she describes her adventures through Persia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. She particularly enjoyed Afghanistan and wrote lovingly of that country.
Before returning to Ireland, Murphy spent several months in Dharamsala working with Tibetan refugees, which resulted in Tibetan Foothold. She then worked with another group of Tibetan refugees in Nepal (The Waiting Land). Her fourth travel book describes a journey through Ethiopia (In Ethiopia with a Mule). Murphy took her daughter with her on later trips to India (On a Shoestring to Coorg), Baltistan (Where the Indus is Young), Madagascar (Muddling through in Madagascar) and South America (Eight Feet in the Andes).
Generally travelling alone and unaided, Murphy offers insights into the cultures and the lives of the people she meets. Her 1982 book Race to the Finish? The Nuclear Stakes prompted a change of style to cover more political issues including the Northern Ireland troubles (A Place Apart), race relations in Bradford and Birmingham (Tales From Two Cities), AIDS (The Ukimwi Road), the aftermath of apartheid (South from the Limpopo), and the post-war reconstruction of the Balkans (Through the Embers of Chaos). She has often been in dangerous situations, for example, being attacked by wolves in the former Yugoslavia, robbed in Siberia, and running into Kalashnikov-toting soldiers in Ethiopia. Somewhat ironically, she cites her worst incident as tripping over her cats at home and shattering her left arm.[4][5]
In 2002, at the age of 71, she planned to cycle in the Ussuriland region of eastern Russia. However, she broke her knee while travelling on the Baikal Amur Mainline railway, and then tore a calf muscle while recuperating at Lake Baikal. Her plans changed to a journey around Siberia by train, boat and bus, documented in her book Through Siberia by Accident. She later revisited Siberia and wrote a companion book, Silverland.
[edit] Personal life and interests
In 1968 she gave birth to her only child, fathered by Irish Times journalist Terence de Vere White, whom she never married. She raised her daughter Rachel alone, "a brave choice in 1960s Ireland" [6], but felt herself in a secure position financially and professionally and thus safe from criticism. (She had written unpublishable novels earlier in her life, one of them, presciently, about a mother and her illegitimate child.[1]) Murphy spent the next five years working as a book reviewer before returning to travel writing. [1]
When not travelling, Murphy lives in Lismore, as she has for most of her life, with five dogs and three cats. [4] She is a patron of Sustrans, a UK charity for promoting sustainable travel [7] and of the Lismore Immrama festival of travel writing.[8]
[edit] Publications
- Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, 1965.
- Tibetan Foothold, 1966.
- The Waiting Land: A Spell in Nepal, 1967.
- In Ethiopia with a Mule, 1968.
- On a Shoestring to Coorg: An Experience of South India, 1976.
- Where the Indus is Young: A Winter in Baltistan, 1977.
- A Place Apart, 1978.
- Wheels Within Wheels (autobiography), 1979.
- Cameroon with Egbert, 1981
- Race to the Finish? The Nuclear Stakes, 1982.
- Muddling through in Madagascar, 1985.
- Changing the Problem: Post-forum Reflections, 1985.
- Ireland, Orbis, 1985.
- Eight Feet in the Andes: Travels With a Mule in Unknown Peru, 1986.
- Tales From Two Cities: Travels of Another Sort, 1987.
- Cameroon With Egbert, 1990.
- Transylvania and Beyond, 1993.
- The Ukimwi Road: From Kenya to Zimbabwe, 1995.
- Visiting Rwanda, 1998.
- South From the Limpopo: Travels Through South Africa, 1999.
- One Foot in Laos, 2001
- Through the Embers of Chaos: Balkan Journeys, 2003.
- Through Siberia by Accident, 2005.
- Silverland: A Winter Journey Beyond the Urals, 2006
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Wroe, Nicholas (2006) Free wheeler The Guardian, April 15, 2006
- ^ a b Murphy, D. (1979) Wheels Within Wheels.
- ^ a b Murphy, D.(1965) Full Tilt.
- ^ a b Allan, Vicky (2007) On Top of the World Sunday Herald, 20 Jan 2007
- ^ Toksvig, Sandi. "Excess Baggage", BBC Radio 4, 2007-12-15.
- ^ [1] Sunday Business Post Online
- ^ Sustrans: How we are funded
- ^ Discover Lismore: Immrama Festival Of Travel Writing
[edit] External links
[edit] Profiles
[edit] Book reviews
- The Perils of Dervla Murphy Clifford L. Graves reviews Full Tilt, The Best of Bicycling, Jan 1969
- Not a person to murder Barbara Trapido reviews South From The Limpopo, The Spectator, Oct 4, 1997
- Peddling Strong Views on Laos Alain Gilloux reviews One Foot in Laos, Asiaweek, July 14, 2000
- On a Shoestring to Coorg Shriram Krishnamurthi reviews On a Shoestring to Coorg, Brown University, Feb 2005
- The intrepid Irish babushka Rory Maclean reviews Silverland, The Telegraph, Nov 26, 2006
[edit] Interviews
- Trailblazer Joanne Hayden, Sunday Business Post, Aug 18, 2002
- Free wheeler Nicholas Wroe, The Guardian, Apr 15, 2006
- On Top of the World Vicky Allan, Sunday Herald, Jan 20, 2007
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