Wheels within Wheels: The Making of a Traveller

What is it that makes us who we are? In this beautifully written and searingly honest autobiography, the intrepid cyclist and traveller Dervla Murphy remembers her richly unconventional first thirty years. She describes her determined childhood self - strong-willed and beguiled by books from the first - her intermittent formal education and the intense relationship of an only child with her parents, particularly her invalid mother whom she nursed until her death. Here lie the roots of Dervla's gift for friendship, her love of writing, her curiosity, her hatred of cant, her hardiness and her desire to travel. Bicycling fifty miles in a day at the age of eleven, alone, it seems only natural that her first major journey should have been to cycle to India.

About the Author :
Dervla Murphy was born on 28 November 1931 of parents whose families were both settled in Dublin as far back as can be traced. Her grandfather and most of his family were involved in the Irish Republican movement. Her father was appointed Waterford County Librarian in 1930 after three years internment in Wormwood Scrubs prison and seven years at the Sorbonne. Her mother was invalided by arthritis when Dervla was one year old. She was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Waterford until she was fourteen, when, because of the wartime shortage of servants, she left to keep house for her father and to nurse her mother. Dervla did this for sixteen years with occasional breaks bicycling on the Continent. Her mother's death left her free to go farther afield and in 1963 she cycled to India. There she worked with Tibetan refugee children before returning home after a year to write her first two books. Full Tilt was published in 1965 and over twenty other travel books have followed. She still lives in County Waterford. Her daughter, Rachel, and three granddaughters live in Italy and join Dervla on her travels when possible.

Review :
"Humour and sturdiness are only the half of it: Dervla Murphy is that rare traveller who can make the world seem both wider and more intimate." The Observer "An extraordinary book, reflecting an extraordinary woman and one of the great travellers of our time." William Trevor, The Times "I relish immensely her energy, her humour and the compassionate eyes with which she regards the world - you feel at the end of the book that some understanding of life has been added to your personality." The Irish Press "This is a book to give strength to the weakest of us and courage to the most timid." Benedict Kiely, Hibernia "A woman of rare understanding - Her wonderfully funny yet serious book, elegantly writeen and full of relish, convinces one that to be truly civilized is to be, and to rely on, oneself." Now "Her reflective account of her own spirit during these 30 years is as fascinating as any of her many adventures in Tibet and Baltistan." Mary Sullivan, The Sunday Telegraph