The Road To Oxlana

A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact and fiction the Penguin Classics edition of Robert Byrons The Road to Oxiana includes an introduction by Colin Thubron.In 1933 Robert Byron began a journey through the Middle East via Beirut Jerusalem Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana - the country of the Oxus the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. The Road to Oxiana offers not only a wonderful record of his adventures but also a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travelers. Robert Byron (1905-41) was born in 1905 and educated at Eton and Merton College Oxford. He died during the Second World War when the ship he was serving on was torpedoed by a U-Boat off Cape Wrath. Byrons The Road to Oxiana is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing.If you enjoyed The Road to Oxiana you might like Charles Darwins The Voyage of the Beagle also available in Penguin Classics.The greatest of all pre-war travel booksWilliam DalrympleWhat Ulysses is to the novel between the wars and what The Waste Land is to poetry The Road to Oxiana is to the travel bookPaul FussellIn any list of the great travel books of the 20th century Robert Byrons account of his travels in Persia and Afghanistan The Road to Oxiana must be put somewhere near the very topTelegraph About the Author Robert Byron was born in 1905 and educated at Eton and Merton College Oxford. He died in 1941 during the Second World War when the ship he was serving on was torpedoed by a U-Boat off Cape Wrath. Byrons The Road to Oxiana is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing.Award-winning travel writer and novelist Colin Thubron was born in London on 14 June 1939. Among his books are Mirror to Damascus (1967) The Hills of Adonis: A Quest in Lebanon (1968) Jerusalem (1969) The Lost Heart of Asia (1994) and In Siberia (1999). Colin Thubron is a regular contributor and reviewer for magazines and newspapers including The Times The Times Literary Supplement and the Spectator. He lives in London.