We are very happy to suggest a book by one of our legendary UN Masters originating in the United Kingdom, Lily West. Many years in the making, her book has finally been self-published on Amazon with a foreword by our founder Harry Mitsidis.
This is not a book about Lily’s journey to 193 or how she gradually visited every country. The book recounts one single trip and takes us back to 1972 when the young author attempted an overland trip to India. A throwback to an era long gone, West goes East takes in places which are today among the world’s biggest hotspots, but back then were ordinary stops on the so-called hippie trail.
The heroes go through Syria including the eastern, now out-of-bounds Deir ez-Zur, then Israel and Gaza and after a detour overland to Khartoum and landing at the now defunct Nicosia airport, end up through Iraq and Shah’s Iran heading for Afghanistan. Eventually, after many months of wandering around, the journey, along with the book, is completed in India.
More than just a travelogue, this is also a diary of a close friendship as the author meets Ed, a young American who always seems to get himself, and everyone else, intro trouble. Through their zany adventures, the narration is as much about the budding friendship, which was to last a lifetime, as well as the author’s own gradual journey to self-realisation.
Lily West is now 75 years old and has been living in Japan for half a century. Her life took many unexpected turns and ultimately led her to travel to every country. Nevertheless, of all her countless trips that have included kidnappings in Central African Republic and the like, she most wanted the adventures of those halcyon days of 1972 to become part of her legacy.
Reading this entertaining, often funny, sometimes sad and overall poignant book will leave you with a sense of nostalgia for a world that is no more. And an overarching realisation of just how much can change in just 50 years; and yet, how much stays the same.
The book is available on Amazon here.
