Although he is not so well known here, Pico Iyer has a cult following in his native United States, where he is regarded as a writer who deals with the more spiritual and esoteric aspects of the world. Sun After Dark, an anthology of his writing from the past dozen years, much of it from the past five, should do much to increase his following here. Subtitled Flights into the Foreign, these essays relate experiences from “journeys that left me shaking in some way”. Don’t expect bone-juddering O’Hanlon- style expeditions through leech-infested swamps. The shaking tends to be from spiritual or psychological surprises or revelations. We live in an age when, as Iyer notes, “the Other is everywhere, not least on our own doorsteps” — this is literally true in his case, since he now lives in Japan.
Iyer celebrates being a free spirit. An intelligent one too. Having returned from the high towers of Yemen to see the Twin Towers come down on 9/11, he feels compelled to write about the ordinary individuals he met on his journey, an antidote to the anti-Arab sentiments that were dominating the media. Some of the best writing and most fascinating stories come from meetings with remarkable men — in a Californian refuge, he finds Leonard Cohen devoting himself to serving a Zen master, while in Dharamsala, he considers the conundrums and predicaments of the media-savvy Dalai Lama.
Wild Italy
by Tim Jepson
Sheldrake Press £12.50
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“O let them be left, wildness and wet,” wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins, “long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.” Readers of the second edition of Tim Jepson’s gem of a book will be echoing the poet’s words, and thanking the author for leading them away from the obvious in Italy — the cities and galleries, the beaches — and into the wild.
Some of the places included here might already have sprung to mind — the remote parts of Sicily, for instance, the Cinque Terre and the less-visited valleys of the Alps and Dolomites. But the chances are you will not have heard of many of these locations. How about La Maiella in the Abruzzo, or the Circeo, a stretch of coast between Rome and Naples. Jepson suggests that the former be “courted as a stranger — slowly and warily”. As well as having an extensive knowledge of many of these wild areas, he also has the ability to write about them with passion. He knows the geology and botany, can describe all that creeps and crawls, bounds and flies and, above all, is able and willing to share his enthusiasms. This is nowhere more visible, perhaps, than in the mysterious Sibillini Mountains, reputed for black magic, home of the ancient Sybil and, he notes, covered by map 666 — the devil’s own number.
To buy Sun After Dark and Wild Italy for the reduced prices of £6.79 and £10 respectively, excluding p&p, or any travel guides, call The Sunday Times Books First on 0870 165 8585