Transylvania and Beyond by Dervla Murphy

Murphy regularly brought a loaded pistol on her travels, for personal safety. Her education, at the Ursuline Convent, Waterford, was cut short at the age of 14 when she had to look after mother who suffered from a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis. As a child she enjoyed writing, and gave her parents short stories or essays as Christmas and birthday presents.

Her father Fergus Murphy was the county librarian and her mother, Kathleen encouraged her to read and discuss books. Waterford, the only child of Dubliners, Fergus and Kathleen Murphy. In 2021, she won the prestigious Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing.ĭervla Murphy grew up in Lismore, Co. In 2019, the Royal Geographical Society celebrated her work with the Ness Award for the “popularisation of geography through travel literature”. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc.In 1979, she won the Christopher Ewart-Biggs memorial prize for A Place Apart: Northern Ireland in the 1970s (1978) written after time spent with members of the Protestant and Catholic communities there.

As they revealed their hopes, fears and prejudices to her, Dervla gained some unexpected insights into what she calls 'one of Europe's least European countries. In urban blocs, small towns and traditional villages she spent time with teachers, factory-workers, writers, farmers, professors, engineers, vets, army officers, shepherds, students and doctors. ' 'Murphy was overwhelmed by the warmth of the hospitality she received. ' 'Candid and eye-opening, Transylvania and Beyond describes a journey on two levels - wandering through the remotest corners of the Carpathians, on foot or by bicycle, and into the often daunting mental terrain of a post-Communist society where nothing is quite as it seems. During a return visit in 1991, she noticed a profound change in the national mood. Upon her arrival soon after the revolution, Murphy found a nation both exhilarated and bewildered unlike other East Europeans, the Romanians had had no warning that they were about to be liberated. 'While world attention was focused on Bucharest after the execution of Ceausescu, acclaimed travel writer Dervla Murphy spent eight months in Transylvania sharing the everyday lives of ordinary Romanians.

Transylvania and Beyond by Dervla Murphy