Daniel Metcalfe / Features / Untitled Books

He has a crafted poise and a keen eye that recalls Byron and Waugh - the best of the decade.

Daniel Metcalfe

Author of Out of Steppe: The Lost Peoples of Central Asia.

Bay of Tigers by Pedro Rosa Mendes

Rosa Mendes, a Portuguese journalist, walks across war-torn Angola and Mozambique in 1997 recording hundreds of snapshot biographies. His observations are minutely detailed and his angles the least likely. But Rosa Mendes doesn't help the reader along. He waits until you get sucked into this fragmented, terrible world you couldn't even dream up. There's no travel writing like it.

News from Tartary by Peter Fleming

The boisterous hero on whom his brother, Ian, modelled his Bond, you can't help feeling that if you were Ella Maillart, his travelling companion, you'd want to hit him. Crossing the wastes of western China in 1935 Fleming is knavish, fearless, and arrogant, but he has a crafted poise and a keen eye that recalls Byron and Waugh - the best of the decade. A pleasure to read, though I'm glad I don't have to travel with him.

The Russia House by John Le Carré

I still think this is one of his best. Marked out from the Smiley trilogy for its warmth, Le Carré has a feel for Russia that's remarkable for someone who's never lived there. From the sight of the plastic bags to the smell of a babushka's flat to the crumbling majesty of late-Soviet Moscow, The Russia House is packed with the usual mix of intrigue, idiosyncrasy and cynicism. Still loving it second time around.

Monday, 13 July, 2009