Polly Evans

Opening Sentence: ‘…I flew out on Friday 13 January and returned home on 1 April.…’

This is the third travel adventure by Polly Evans that I have read and I enjoyed the experience. This time she takes us with her to the Yukon Territory in the far north west of Canada so she can learn about sled dogs. We are introduced to the people she meets, get a vivid feel for the places she goes to, with interesting snippets about the history of the places she visits.

She has a steep learning curve show more as well; starting off with learning how to clean up the dog poo of 108 dogs, then feed them without leaving anyone out and then how not to allow the dogs to beat her in mind game for leadership. As she learns how to control a sled and dog team, she comes to love the icy beauty of the harsh Canadian wilderness, and the cheeky huskies. Advice is handed to the reader, such as the different ways of reacting to a hungry bear and a mother bear; how to know when a moose really wants you to back off, and how to not get asphyxiated if your car breaks down.

As she mushes through the snow in minus 44 degrees in the Yukon Quest dog race, and walks the trail taken by pioneers in the gold rush to pan for gold, she teaches you about things you never ever thought of and brings Canada alive for you. Canada is STILL on my wish list of countries to visit one day, but realistically I think this is as close as I am going to get. Polly Evans has lots of photo’s of her Yukon adventure on her webpage – also from her other adventures – which really bring the stories of daring do alive for me.

“…More extraordinary still was the fact that I was starting to enjoy the weather. The Yukon light was mesmerizing with its late blue dawns and the buttery glow of noon. One morning as I stood in the dog yard in temperatures of 30 below, I noticed that the snowflakes falling on my fleece were single, intricate crystals, breathtakingly perfect in their formation. Above my head, jagged gems of hoar frost glistened on the boughs of the spruce. And then, sometimes, at night, the northern lights weaved green and red across the starry skies…”

I really recommend Polly Evans’s books – she manages to portray a country, its peoples and its history without patronising or judging as many travel writers manage to do. I am so glad that I have two more of her books on my TBR pile ready to go. show less

Opening Sentence: "...I gazed with goulish fascination at the withered, waxen corpse..."

Polly Evans opens her trip through China with a visit to Chairman Mao’s mausoleum in Beijing. From here she travels by train, bus, ferry, plane and taxi’s across various parts of this huge country. With a very basic, verging on almost useless, understanding of Chinese she is often the only Caucasian in a sea of curious locals. Getting a meal in a restaurant involved walking around the other guests and show more pointing at their food.

She gets in touch with the real China – from sharing odorous outdoor toilets, dodging flying snot to being gassed in enclosed in trains and buses with smokers. She also spends a day at a Kung Fu School, visits a whole town of Wang’s and climbs mountains. Into this wonderful mix of good and bad she throws wonderful snippets of historical information – how eunuchs were chosen and created. How European ballet dancers are to blame for the foot binding operation, and the various cruelties of emperors and empresses – both real and fabled.

Fried Eggs with Chopsticks is a wonderful insight into modern China – how the past has helped make the present. show less

Opening Sentence: "... As a child, I longed to ride a horse...."

What a wonderful travel tale this was. Polly Evans lives in London and decides that it is time to learn to ride. Rather than learn at some clapped out riding school in the country, Polly flies to Argentina.

I was just spellbound by her adventures, horses are just the excuse to get to Argentina, the country is what kept me reading. Yes she learns to ride a horse, yes she plays polo and spends a day rounding up cattle - but along show more the way the reader learns about the vast landscapes of the huge country - from mountains to plains, glaciers to deserts. A history that is violent and full of senseless cruelty yet riveting. A people who are proud of their land, their culture and sleep every afternoon.

Polly Evans is very laid back and easy to read. She shares tons of information and makes it all very interesting. Her humour bounces off every page - without being offensive and superior to the people she is visiting like so many travel writers do. I learned so much while reading this - the reason behind the Falklands conflict; how Evita Peron's body took many years, and travelled great distances before finally being laid to rest; visited two horse, Gato and Mancha who travelled from Buenos Aires to Washington DC in the 1920's with their master; and wonder at the waterfalls of Iguazu. show less

I read this book while I was a student in china 2 years ago. when I was done with it I started passing it around to all my friends who lived in country with me, Koreans, Europeans, Japanese, Chinese. We passed the book around the way you might pass around videos online of a man falling legs apart on a metal pole. Painful to watch but you can't look away. you laugh and groan at the same time.

This is one of the worst accounts of china I've ever seen. Every single person I gave the book to was show more offended at some level, none more so than the actually Chinese people who read it. It so simplified and denigrating to the culture Polly was experiencing I couldn't help but cringe at every new chapter. The observations she makes about the Chinese people tend to be off the mark almost every time, and in many cases are just flat out wrong.

I obviously hated this book, and I really hope no one reads this expecting to get a true account of what china is like. It is a wonderful place, with more than it's share of real attributes and real vices, but none of which were mentioned in this shallow work. Most of all i am offended by the arrogance involved in a person who thinks she can go on a 3 week vacation to a place then write a book about it thinking she has any expertise, or any real knowledge of the place. it's a book of first impressions because she never thought to investigate any deeper than her own judgmental surface. show less