Land of Eagles: Riding through Europe's Forgotten Country - Softcover

Hanbury-Tenison, Robin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780765029 ISBN 13: 9781780765020

Publisher: I.B. Tauris, 2014

Synopsis

Albania is the least-known and least developed country in Europe. It has a long, rich and troubled past, characterised by unrest and isolationism. Today, very little is known of its people - beyond those who have emigrated to other countries in Europe - and its landscapes have remained virtually untravelled for centuries. Determined to discover the country behind the stereotypes and preconceptions, Robin Hanbury-Tenison and his wife Louella rode across Albania, from Thethi in the north to the border with Greece in the south.

Following in the footsteps of Byron, Edward Lear and Edith Durham they crossed some of the most wild and arrestingly beautiful landscape in Europe. Through soaring mountain ranges and hidden valleys dotted with Illyrian, Roman and Byzantine ruins they lived simply; staying in the homes of communities untouched by the 21st century and in towns bursting with artistic creativity. They discovered an ancient land, proud and fiercely independent, struggling to emerge from the darkness of repression and poverty and from the shadows of its more popular neighbours.

About this title

About the Author:

Robin Hanbury-Tenison, OBE, DL, is the doyen of British explorers. A Founder and President of Survival International, the world's leading organisation supporting tribal peoples, he was one of the first people to bring the plight of the rainforests to the world's attention. He has been a Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society, winner of the Pio Manzu Award, an International Fellow of the Explorers Club, Winston Churchill Memorial Fellow, Trustee of the Ecological Foundation and Fellow of the Linnean Society.

Among his many publications are: A Question of Survival, A Pattern of Peoples, The Yanomami, Fragile Eden, The Oxford Book of Exploration, Mulu: The Rain Forest and his two autobiographies, Worlds Apart and Worlds Within, as well as a successful quartet of books about the other long distance rides he and Louella have made across France, China, New Zealand and Spain.

Review:

""Albania remains one of the most mysterious, beguiling countries in Europe. Robin and Louella Hanbury-Tenison have travelled through it in a way I can only envy. Top to bottom on horseback, a journey on which they had the time to look behind the stereotypes of the country and see the dramatic beauty and unique traditions that lie beneath."" - Michael Palin

""Robin's zest to explore all sorts of strange places and write books about them has now taken him to Albania - this is a place I have always wanted to go to"" - Sir Ranulph Fiennes

'His best book to date...of the sort that would win the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award if it were still going. It's got just the right balance of travelogue and digression. The Sunday Times named Hanbury-Tenison 'the greatest explorer of the past 20 years' and one of the thousand 'Makers of the 20th Century'. He deserves to be much better known as an author and perhaps with the publication of Land of Eagles this slight injustice is about to be put right.' - Nick Smith, Bookdealer

About this edition

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1780765029
• ISBN 13: 9781780765020
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 232