The Journey's Echo. 1963 1st Edition. Inscribed to 'Barbara' [Toy]

Description: John Murray; The Journey's Echo 1963 | 1st Edition Title THE JOURNEY'S ECHO; Selections from Freya Stark. Barbara Toy Author Anon Published London: 1963 John Murray Edition 1st Edition Format Hardcover | Cloth Signed Condition Book: Near Fine | DJ: Fair Language English --> Provenance Inscription. Book acquired with other Barbara Toy books. Additional Items Description and Condition --> Description Hardcover | Cloth. Illustrated blue cloth over green cloth. Inscription to Barbara (being Barabara Toy: Book acquired with other Barbara Toy items). Language: English. Size: 21 cm by 13 cm. Pages: 223. Book Condition Near Fine Sharp corners, edges and spine ends. Clean cloth. Tightly bound with clean intact endpapers and strong hinges. Clean unmarked pages. Minor mark to lower spine edge. Dust Jacket Condition Fair Light wear and chipping to soiled upper and lower edges. Lightly sunned and toned spine. Unclipped. Notes --> Provenance Inscription. Book acquired with other Barbara Toy books. Barbara Alex Toy (1908-2001) was an Australian-British travel writer, theatrical director, playwright, and screenplay writer most famous for the series of books she wrote about her pioneering and solitary travels around the world in a Land Rover, undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s. Born in Sydney, on 11 August 1908 to Bert Frank Claud Toy and Nellie Frederica (Lowing) Toy. She was largely self-taught, although she did attend Neutral Bay School in Sydney for a time. In 1930 she married Ewing Rixson, who had a passion for books and travel, and introduced Toy to the world of travel. However, the couple gradually drifted apart, and eventually separated with Toy moving to London in 1935. In London Toy became involved in the theatrical world. After an unsuccessful stint as an actress, she worked behind the scenes as assistant stage manager and stage director. After bomb damage closed the Richmond Theatre in 1941, Toy worked at the Welwyn Film Studios, where she met screenwriter and film director Norman Lee. In 1943 under the pseudonym 'Norman Armstrong', she co-authored Lifeline with Lee, and an adaptation of W. W. Jacobs' 1902 horror story The Monkey's Paw, the film of which was released in 1948. Toy had travelled extensively with her husband visiting Thailand, Iceland, Europe and had been made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in recognition of these travels. However, her life changed to solo overland expeditions and adventure in 1950, as a result of a bet made in a pub. First expedition 1950-1: Gibraltar to Baghdad and back to London Toy had always wanted to visit Baghdad. She described the genesis of the first of many solo overland trips in a 1963 newspaper interview: "Her philosophy is that life is gloriously free. 'I was arguing about this with a group of friends in a London pub . . . and I suddenly found myself saying, 'As a matter of fact, I'm off to Bagdad in a week or two'. " Once committed to the trip, she quickly purchased a second hand Series I Land Rover, which she named Pollyanna. It is worth noting that Toy's solo journey took place almost five years before the perhaps more celebrated six-man team Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition, a London to Singapore overland trip between September 1955 and March 1956 that was also undertaken in Land Rovers. Second expedition 1952: Libya Toy's second journey was through Libya. This six or seven-month expedition was undertaken in 1952. She and Pollyanna arrived by ship at Tripoli. As well as travelling along the coastline, she made two journeys into the interior, to Traghen in Fezzan, and to Al Jawf (called El Giof by Toy) and El Tag in the Kufra oasis. Third expedition 1953: Kuwait and Saudi Arabia Another journey followed in 1953, beginning in Kuwait when she wrote to King Abdulaziz, the King of Saudi Arabia asking for permission to visit. Permission was granted, and Toy became one of the first women to explore Saudi Arabia and to meet the King and visit his harem. Fourth expedition 1956-7: Round the world Fifth expedition 1959: Libya, Central African Republic, Congo, Tanganyika, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya Toy felt that her fifth journey, in 1959, was when she became a real 'explorer'. She travelled from Libya to the Central African Republic, further south to the Congo and then east to Lake Victoria, then north along the River Nile to Khartoum in Sudan, then east into Ethiopia, then took a wandering course south through Ethiopia and eventually entered Kenya at Moyale. Sixth expedition 1961: Timbuktu to Tripoli In another journey, undertaken in 1961 in a replacement and more modern Land Rover, Toy drove from Timbuktu to Tripoli, described in her 1964 book, The Way of the Chariots. One aim was to investigate the hundreds of rock drawings discovered in 1933 by a French officer in the Tassili n'Ajjer mountains in southern Algeria. She also hoped to see if there was any evidence for the apocryphal great highway stretching from the Mediterranean to the Niger that had been supposedly driven by chariots in prehistoric times. Expeditions in later life In 1990, at the age of 81 and as Vice-President of the Land Rover Register 1948–1953, Toy set off on her second world tour in the original Pollyanna. She successfully completed a second circumnavigation and was home just in time for Christmas. After that, she made a trip across the Alps, retracing the steps of the journey made by Hannibal and his elephants. 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Price: 120 GBP

Location: Chippenham, UK

End Time: 2025-01-19T11:17:31.000Z

Shipping Cost: 24.75 GBP