Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
{{short description |Travel book by Dervla Murphy}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title =
| name = Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle
| image = Full Tilt.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Cover of John Murray first edition (1965)
| author = Dervla Murphy
| audio_read_by =
| title_orig =
| orig_lang_code = en
| title_working =
| translator =
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country =
| language =
| series =
| release_number =
| subject =
| genre =
| set_in =
| publisher = John Murray
| publisher2 =
| pub_date = 1965
| english_pub_date =
| published =
| media_type =
| pages = 235 (first edition)
| awards =
| isbn =
| isbn_note =
| oclc = 773284636
| dewey = 915.4
| congress =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by = Tibetan Foothold
| native_wikisource =
| wikisource =
| notes =
| exclude_cover =
| website =
}}
Full Tilt is a book by Irish author Dervla Murphy, about an overland cycling trip through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/01/books/summer-reading-travel.html |first=Andrew |last=Harvey |date=1 June 1986 |accessdate=29 February 2020 |work=The New York Times |title=Summer Reading; Travel}}{{cite news |url=https://cycling.ahands.org/bicycling/dervla.html |first=Clifford |last=Graves |date=January 1969 |accessdate=27 February 2020 |work=The Best of Bicycling |title=The Perils of Dervla Murphy}}
It was first published by John Murray in 1965. The book is usually given the subtitle Ireland to India with a Bicycle, but has been called Dunkirk to Delhi by Bicycle and From Dublin to Delhi with a Bicycle.
Full Tilt has been described as both one of the best cycling books,{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/25/10-best-cycling-books-the-rider-tim-krabbe-tour-de-france |first=Rob |last=Penn |authorlink=Rob Penn |date=25 March 2016 |accessdate=29 February 2020 |work=The Guardian |title=The 10 best cycling books}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/13/on-your-bike-the-best-books-about-cycling |first=Jon |last=Day |date=13 July 2018 |accessdate=29 February 2020 |work=The Guardian |title=On your bike: the best books about cycling}} and one of the best travel books.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2011/sep/16/travel-writers-favourite-books |first1=William |last1=Dalrymple |authorlink1=William Dalrymple (historian) |first2=Paul |last2=Theroux |authorlink2=Paul Theroux |date=16 September 2011 |accessdate=29 February 2020 |work=The Guardian |title=My favourite travel book, by the world's greatest travel writers}}{{cite news |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/the-20-best-travel-books-of-the-past-century-9sr9dmnvn8z |first=Steve |last=Keenan |date=17 September 2009 |access-date=29 February 2020 |work=The Times |title=The 20 best travel books of the past century |url-access=subscription}}
Summary
In 1963 Murphy set off on her first long-distance bicycle tour, a self-supported trip from Ireland to India. Taking a pistol along with other equipment aboard her Armstrong Cadet men's bicycle (named Rozinante in allusion to Don Quixote's steed, and always known as Roz), she passed through Europe during one of the worst winters in years. In Yugoslavia, Murphy began to write a journal instead of mailing letters. In Iran she used her gun to frighten off a group of thieves, and "used unprintable tactics" to escape from an attempted rapist at a police station. She received her worst injury of the journey on a bus in Afghanistan, when a rifle butt hit her and fractured three ribs; however, this only delayed her for a short while. She wrote appreciatively about the landscape and people of Afghanistan, calling herself "Afghanatical" and claiming that the Afghan "is a man after my own heart". In Pakistan, she visited Swat (where she was a guest of the last wali, Miangul Aurangzeb) and the mountain area of Gilgit. The final leg of her trip took her through the Punjab region and over the border to India towards Delhi. Her journal was later published by John Murray in 1965.
{{cite news |quote=I am filled with admiration for her courage, resource, good nature and unselfconsciousness ... the charm of spontaneity and the ring of absolute truth, |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=19 June 1965 |page=8 |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1965/0619/Pg008.html |url-access=subscription |title=Ireland to India |first=Moira |last=Verschoyle |authorlink=Moira Verschoyle}}
{{cite news |quote=Punctures, broken ribs, hornets and scorpions notwithstanding, it was a high old time between Miss Murphy and her Islamic hosts ... her book is sensible, warm-hearted, unfinicky. |work=The Observer |title=Full Tilt By Dervla Murphy |date=11 July 1965 |page=22 |url=https://theguardian.newspapers.com/image/258002221 |url-access=subscription}}
{{cite magazine |quote=This vivid journal ... would have delighted Cervantes with its almost incredible surprises: a valley full of birds the size of butterflies and butterflies as big as robins; a village where the cattle eat apricots and the villagers eat clover ... Somewhere between Kabul and Jalalabad, she thought she was dreaming when she woke from a roadside nap to find that nomads had raised a tent over her to shield her from the sun. |magazine=The New Yorker |title=Review}}
{{cite news |quote=She avoided wolves (animal and human), floods, robbery, had three ribs broken in a brawl in an Afghan bus; waded across an ice torrent, hugging a cow ... suffered extremes of heat and cold, ate everything, liked almost everybody |work=Homes & Gardens |title=Review}}
{{cite news |quote=A journey with incalculable hardships and perils. It is unexpected, but then everything Dervla Murphy does is unexpected ... an enchantment that holds the reader as engrossed as would an exciting thriller. |work=Irish Independent |date=18 September 1965 |title=By bicycle it's a long way to Kabul}}
{{cite news |quote=Warmly described, and with a lack of self-regard that immediately endears her to the reader. |work=The Sunday Times |title=Review}}
Editions
- 1965: John Murray, 235pp.{{cite web |url=http://search.bl.uk/BLBNB:LSCOP-BNB:BLL01008340051 |title=Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle |website=British Library |access-date=29 February 2020 |archive-date=4 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504200814/http://search.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=BLBNB&search_scope=LSCOP-BNB&docId=BLL01008340051&fn=permalink |url-status=dead }}
- 1967: Pan Books, 271pp.{{cite web |url=http://search.bl.uk/BLBNB:LSCOP-BNB:BLL01009673976 |title=Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle |website=British Library |access-date=29 February 2020}}
- 1983: Century (London), 235pp, {{ISBN|0712600752}}.{{cite web |url=http://search.bl.uk/BLBNB:LSCOP-BNB:BLL01007402339 |title=Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle |website=British Library |access-date=29 February 2020}}
- 1985: Isis (Oxford), 305pp, {{ISBN|1850890471}}.{{cite web |url=http://search.bl.uk/BLBNB:LSCOP-BNB:BLL01011398285 |title=Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle |website=British Library |access-date=29 February 2020}}
- 1991: Arrow Books, 235pp, {{ISBN|009995530X}}.{{cite web |url=http://search.bl.uk/BLBNB:LSCOP-BNB:BLL01010665137 |title=Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle |website=British Library |access-date=29 February 2020}}
- 1995 (as Full Tilt: Dunkirk to Delhi by Bicycle): Flamingo (London), 244pp, {{ISBN|0006548008}}.{{cite web |url=http://search.bl.uk/BLBNB:LSCOP-BNB:BLL01009376311 |title=Full Tilt: Dunkirk to Delhi by Bicycle |website=British Library |access-date=29 February 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- 2004 (as Full Tilt: From Dublin to Delhi with a Bicycle): John Murray, 244pp, {{ISBN|0719565146}}.{{cite web |url=http://search.bl.uk/BLBNB:LSCOP-BNB:BLL01006930809 |title=Full Tilt: From Dublin to Delhi with a Bicycle |website=British Library |access-date=29 February 2020 }}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
References
{{reflist}}