Full Tilt
Dervla Murphy's first book, Full Tilt, has become a classic, and is the title with which she is most often associated. Published by John Murray in 1965, Dervla's journey 'From Ireland to India' by bike is famously the coming alive of a childhood dream, born when Dervla was given a bike and an atlas for her tenth birthday. The apparent improbability of the main characters immediately attaches a certain intrigue to the book - the heroine of course, is the 31 year old Dervla, then a single young woman from Lismore in rural Ireland. More than a few eyebrows must have been raised when she announced that she planned to cycle, alone, to Delhi. (Cycle? Alone? To India? From Ireland?) Dervla would probably be horrified to think of her bicycle Roz as anything other than a co-star in this extraordinary story, and the attachment which Dervla has towards the machine which propels her half way around the world is apparent throughout the book.
A frozen Europe and bitterly cold, infinitely challenging cycling conditions did not deter Dervla from starting her trip in early 1963 - she has written and said many times that the 'Full Tilt' journey on her beloved bicycle Roz came after the death of her much loved mother, following long long period during which she nursed her through illness and invalidity. The pressure of this, she told Sue Lawley on BBC's Desert Island Discs had become almost unendurable, and one can speculate that the journey to India was driven and energized by the great relief Dervla must have felt, when, aged 31, she was finally able to throw her body and mind into the expedition she had planned over the two preceding decades.
Given the chance, I should like to ask Dervla Murphy whether the trip, as well as representing a release from her parents, was also in some way a tribute to them. It is clear from reading her autobiography 'Wheels within Wheels' that she was encouraged as a child to read extensively, be inquisitive and to push herself physically - read alongside the autobiography, it is easy to view the enormous achievement which was Dervla's lone cycle ride from a small Irish country town to India's sprawling capital as the fruits of her upbringing.
Why do I love this book? The answer is that I love it because it offers up a challenge. Presented as it is, that is to say adapted only minimally from Dervla's nightly diaries, the book can be read in two ways - on the one hand it represents an experience which is inevitably seen by the reader as being extraordinarily adventurous, daring, impossible. But on the other hand, it is hard not to spot the matter of factness with which Dervla recounts her experiences. To feel, as a reader, chastened by Dervla's 'just do it' attitude is to feel like achieving one's own personal dreams might in fact not need to involve great drama or glory, but rather just be a matter of keeping on pedalling.......
Sarah Ledger 2012
A frozen Europe and bitterly cold, infinitely challenging cycling conditions did not deter Dervla from starting her trip in early 1963 - she has written and said many times that the 'Full Tilt' journey on her beloved bicycle Roz came after the death of her much loved mother, following long long period during which she nursed her through illness and invalidity. The pressure of this, she told Sue Lawley on BBC's Desert Island Discs had become almost unendurable, and one can speculate that the journey to India was driven and energized by the great relief Dervla must have felt, when, aged 31, she was finally able to throw her body and mind into the expedition she had planned over the two preceding decades.
Given the chance, I should like to ask Dervla Murphy whether the trip, as well as representing a release from her parents, was also in some way a tribute to them. It is clear from reading her autobiography 'Wheels within Wheels' that she was encouraged as a child to read extensively, be inquisitive and to push herself physically - read alongside the autobiography, it is easy to view the enormous achievement which was Dervla's lone cycle ride from a small Irish country town to India's sprawling capital as the fruits of her upbringing.
Why do I love this book? The answer is that I love it because it offers up a challenge. Presented as it is, that is to say adapted only minimally from Dervla's nightly diaries, the book can be read in two ways - on the one hand it represents an experience which is inevitably seen by the reader as being extraordinarily adventurous, daring, impossible. But on the other hand, it is hard not to spot the matter of factness with which Dervla recounts her experiences. To feel, as a reader, chastened by Dervla's 'just do it' attitude is to feel like achieving one's own personal dreams might in fact not need to involve great drama or glory, but rather just be a matter of keeping on pedalling.......
Sarah Ledger 2012
Photo used under Creative Commons from Emmanuel Dyan