RSS Triumph Around the World
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One day, a skinny man called Robbie Marshall packed his bags onto a very inappropriate Triumph and set off around the world. He hit all the continents except for the polar ones, met some fantastic people, had wild experiences of both the positive and negative kind, and then came home to try to rebuild his life. |
I had a love-hate relationship with this book. The story is amazing: I could not help but admire his courage, sheer bloody-mindedness and his soul-searching. His insights were deep and this was the aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most.
But the editing was terrible and the writing poor, with many spelling and grammar errors. It’s such a tragedy that the small publisher who put this book out could not have spent a little money on a professional editor. With one, this would have been brilliant: an insightful travel essay that flowed easily instead of choking on itself like an engine with carb problems.
Robbie was shot at, laughed at, and managed to inspire at least one person to leave a poor situation and change her life for the better. His descriptions of border crossings and corruption just serve to remind me that I’m not even remotely interested in doing this kind of trip myself. It’s good, then, that there are books like his to describe what it’s like. Remember that he did it unsupported, on his own savings, with no film crew and few guides.
I understand clearly how lost it is possible to feel when you come home from such a life-changing thing and realize that it wasn’t enough, that you want to do it all over again, and that nothing will ever be the same again.
I wanted to contact him and ask him some questions, but it appears that since the book came out, he passed away. :(
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5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Henry Stephen
I biked a bit with Robbie on a few adventures as a close schoolboy friend. We were in touch with each other years later when he was in Spain just before he died. He told me of his book which I read and thought just marvelous. I thank you for your commentary which I think was very good. I agree that this book is incredible but it was him to the core and had he had a bit more help would have perhaps been a best seller. I was asked through his family to write something to his friends informing them of his death and they liked what I wrote. If you would like I could send you a copy. I can perhaps give you a little insight to the person but I doubt I could answer your questions as we had not seen each other for many years.
Dec 30th, 2008
Linda R. Moore
I would like very much to read that letter. I did wonder what had become of him and thought it was sad that he never got to do his continued traveling.
I’ll drop you a line directly.
Jan 3rd, 2009
Linda R. Moore
Oh — whoops - my email is a little broken right now. So please could you just try replying when you receive this, and we’ll take it from there? I’d make sure I’m back up and running before you send the letter. :)
Jan 3rd, 2009
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