'FOR A PAGAN SONG:
TRAVELS IN INDIA, PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN'
by JONNY BEALBY
'I had no idea what lay ahead and I didn't really care. I was young and free and at the beginning of a great adventure. What more tremendous feeling could there be?'
Jonny Bealby is one hell of a courageous man and has ventured where very few men have gone before. Inspired by Rudyard Kipling's classic 'The Man Who Would Be King' tale, Jonny set out to find the real Kafiristan that featured in the novel. Setting out from India and heading north through Pakistan, the infamous and notoriously dangerous Khyber Pass which forms the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was the first place on his journey that really got his goatee. From there on into Afghanistan, his life was destined to never be the same again, as he set out on foot from the area around the village of Bandul - on the northern side of the Karik Pass - further north and in search of the fabled Kafiristan, which is now known as Nuristan.
Much in the spirit of Andrew Stevenson's 'Annapurna Circuit' account of his trek around the circuit of the same name in Nepal, 'For A Pagan Story' is Bealby's second attempt at travel writing, and an amazing follow-up to his epic 'Running With The Moon' account of a route less travelled that he pioneered through Africa on motorbike.
An intrepid adventurer who isn't scared to concede his fears through his writing, he realised full well that Afghanistan isn't the safest of countries to trek through; it isn't even safe for native Afghans to mill about in for too long, as bandits are rife across much of the country, operating mainly near high mountain passes, with no respect for the so-called 'law' whatsoever. On the upside, the fact that Jonny was one of only a select number of people who had ever penetrated the country to such an intimate extent filled him with a strange sense of pride.
This was first published in 1998, and thus three years before the events of 9/11. Still, the presence of the Taliban was rife in and around the country's capital of Kabul when he was passing through the country to make matters even more dangerous ('Fighter jets had strafed the city, killing ten and injuring scores more. I had hoped that by some miracle a peace deal might have been on the cards')� but luckily he survived, and the majority of the people that he did meet en-route showed nothing but compassion for, and kindness towards him.
It's a tragedy that Afghanistan is war-torn to such bloody extents, because the country does sound to be a beautiful one, with Jonny's down-to-earth and graceful prose conjuring up images of terrain very similar to the type of landscapes encountered in Nepal. I'm just glad that he had the balls to undertake such an extraordinarily brave journey as he did, for although I know that I will never go there personally, I actually feel as though I have already been, which is testament to Jonny's remarkable writing talent.
What's even more remarkable is the fact that Jonny had barely read a book before the age of 21, let alone written anything of his own. The book in question was, of course, 'The Man Who Would Be King.'
'In that tale two brave men had a distant dream to rise up from their frustrated lives and make their mark; to take fate by the scruff of the neck and march it along a different path. Against all the odds, they succeeded. When I read that story,' Jonny freely admits, 'a seed was sown within me, an idea that whatever I wanted I could achieve, all I had to do was take a chance and try. So I tried.'
And boy did he succeed, with 'For A Pagan Song' triumphing as one of the most inspirational books that I could ever have hoped to discover: a true treat from first step to last. (Steve Rudd)
ISBN 0-434-00355-7 (WILLIAM HEINEMANN; first published in 1998)
Be sure to check out Jonny's adventure-travel company website at...
www.wildfrontiers.co.uk