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Silk Dreams, Troubled Road [Paperback]

Jonny Bealby
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Book Description

5 Jun 2003

While in Islamabad investigating the possibilities of setting up an adventure travel company, Jonny Bealby met the woman of his dreams. Not only that, but Rachel was the person with whom he could live out his dream -- to travel the Old Silk Road on horseback. On his return to Pakistan that Christmas, however, Jonny was faced with those dreadful words: 'I've met somebody else...'

With his heart fixed on this journey and the possibility of a TV deal, Jonny set out to find a Quixotic stranger as his companion. In no time he found Sarah -- attractive, warm and funny -- the perfect candidate for a possible romance. Unfortunately, though, during their search for the Heavenly Horses that would carry them across the Mountains of Heaven, their fledgling friendship was beset by problems of communication, inexperience and the difficulty of adapting to radically different cultures and surroundings.

A breathtaking travelogue, and an intriguing and heart-warming illustration of human relationships as they are tested to their limits.

(20030109)

Frequently Bought Together

Silk Dreams, Troubled Road + For A Pagan Song: In the Footsteps of the Man Who Would Be King - Travels in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan + Running With The Moon: A Boy's Own Adventure - Riding a Motorbike Through Africa
Price For All Three: £20.22

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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Arrow (5 Jun 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099414694
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099414698
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 1.9 x 19.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 178,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

An absolute page-turner... I found myself firing through the 'traveling' passages so that I could get to the latest campfire dust-up.... Wonderful descriptions of the Mountains of Heaven and the ancient city of Samarkand. (Wanderlust )

A truly enthralling book (Daily Mail )

Fascinating reading [and] an amazing travel adventure (Brentwood Gazette Series )

Reads like a cross between Ray Mears' Extreme Survival and Streetmate-. An incredible adventure. (OK! Magazine )

Book Description

An enthralling and incredible journey through human relationships.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A journey for the mind 26 Jan 2006
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Having read the other Amazon review, I feel compelled to write something as my experience of the book was the opposite; I enjoyed the book immensely. I found the account of the mental journey Jonny Bealby found himself on was just as inspiring as the narrative of his silk road travels. I somehow feel I know and understand myself a little better for reading it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Crazy Premise, Wonderful Book 3 Nov 2009
Format:Paperback
The basis for this book is that Jonny Bealby needed to save a TV deal by finding a strange woman to accompany him, on horseback, along the old Silk Road from Pakistan to the Caspian Sea. It's hard to believe that this could generate such a good book, particularly as he didn't get on well with the woman he found. Nevertheless, Jonny Bealby's talent for candid self-analysis is as entertaining here as in his previous two books, Running With The Moon and For A Pagan Song. The three books form an autobiographical travel trilogy and, I think, should be republished as such.

Jonny Bealby is an excellent, insightful writer. I was sorry when I got to the end of the book and read his resolution not to write any more. Then I was glad to read an interview with him, dated August 2009, in which he said that one day he would write another book. Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to reading it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Painfully honest 20 Nov 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's rather unusual to read a travel book that is so honest from start to finish. For Johnny to have had problems with his travel partner right from the beginning casts a bit of a downer on the book, and the references to making the documentary at every point remind the reader that it's a very unconventional travel story. It's a shame the programme didn't go out on the BBC or Channel Four.

Probably the most unusual travel story I've ever read.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Posh Boy 11 Jan 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have got and read all 3 of Jonnys books. They are all excellent and i would thoroughly recommend all 3 - not your usual up ones own a..e travelogue. Just a shame that Jonny is a Posh Boy - only Posh Boys do these trips!!
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4.0 out of 5 stars Few will have the courage to be so adventurous 11 Dec 2011
By Four Violets VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
As I love riding and travelling in far flung places I was biased towards enjoying this book, and I was definitely not disappointed. Unlike me, who likes a bed at night, Jonny Bealby and his companion did their trip from Kashgar to the Caspian Sea, along the old Silk Road, the hard way, travelling independently most of the way and sleeping wherever they could lay their heads.

Everything that can possibly go wrong on such a journey is bound to make reading about it more amusing and enjoyable for someone sitting in safety and comfort thousands of miles away from danger and deprivation; but some of the shambolic and foolhardy decisions Jonny made astonished me. For a start, choosing a female companion for the sake of the film he was making of the journey, he chose not the best rider or toughest trekker but the most attractive (rejecting the potentially most suitable because she was older than him)...luckily Sarah also turns out to be feisty, courageous and determined. I was so impressed with her hardiness I managed to recover from the fact she set off on such an epic journey without a coat - or knickers. She also finds herself extremely attracted to one of the gold-toothed guides, much to Jonny's chagrin. Serves him right, I thought.

I started out thinking Jonny was patronising and condescending to women, acting like a dirty old man around teenage girls, but eventually warmed to him because of his blunt honesty regarding his regret in mixing up the journey of a lifetime and possibility of a fresh start with a potential soul mate (after his previous love died suddenly and horribly ten years previously) with writing about it, and filming it too.
... Read more ›
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1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing read 21 Sep 2010
By Matt
Format:Paperback
I have visited Samarkand and Tashkent as the kind of package tourist Jonny disparages,so I bought the book hoping to find out more about the Silk Road.However he spends far too much time moaning about the lack of sexual attraction with his chosen fellow traveller. The blurb made it sound fascinating, pity the book did not live up to it.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Troubled is right. 15 Jun 2004
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I have read his other book and bought this one to see if his romance from the previous book continued. As he says in his own words "so for the most part our trip had been a disaster". This is true of the book too and I have to confess to geting bored and skipping to the end. I enjoyed his other book about Africa.
This however had none of the effortlessness and passion and is not as inspired or inspiring. He still writes well and I enjoyed passages of the book but is just unfortunate that the subject was not as interesting as his other books.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have no idea why this book is so highly rated?? I bought this book for much the same reason I buy most travel books; because I would love to do the same trips. A keen traveler myself, I have been looking at cycling through Asia for a while and thought a book about a horseback ride on the silk road would be perfect.

WRONG!

To sum up the story, without ruining it (which isn't possible as it's terrible) Mr Bealby has an idea to ride horses through Central Asia (awesome idea) however the woman of his life deserts him so he needs to find another one to come with him. As you can imagine, embarking on a romaniticised trip with a woman you don't know ends (or pretty much begins) in disaster. Subsequently the whole book is just one rambling complaint about the two traveling partners and what a waste the whole thing was.

There was next to no material on how beautiful and full of history the places they went are, which naturally was disapointing. However, this isn't a big complaint as a) most travel literature is rarely about the place and more about the author which means.... b) I have realised that the main reason I don't like the book is because the man is an arsehole.

Overall, the trip, the documentary, the book and Jonny Bealby should never have happened.

I would recommend reading any other book in the entire world including the autobiography of John Prescott over this book.
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