Travels With Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuściński


A difficult book to classify, it is a memoir of a Polish foreign correspondent of high repute and an homage to Herodotus, author of The Histories. I came late to Herodotus, probably as the result of a too narrow an education. The Anthony Minghella film of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient was my first experience of the profound effect that The Histories has on the lives of people who are fortunate to come to Herodotus early in Life. Minghella himself has said that 'The Herodotus is the novel's metonym containing as it does the souvenirs, kind and cruel, of a love affair, of an expedition, of the necessary lyrics and maps.'.

Kapuscinski vividly describes his first encounter with Herodotus. He has just been told that he is about to take his first ever trip outside Poland: 'Tarlowska [his editor-in-chief] reached into a cabinet, took out a book, and handing it to me said: "Here, a present, for the road." It was a thick book with a stiff cover of yellow cloth. On the front, stamped in gold letters, was Herodotus, THE HISTORIES.' From that moment on, Herodotus is his constant companion on journalistic assignments throughout the world. A source of constant delight and a perceptive guide to human nature. And it is this delight that drives this memoir through India, China and his beloved, Africa.

Last Christmas I treated myself to a copy of Tom Holland's new translation of The Histories, after all, my Penguin Classics edition of the De Selincourt translation is getting somewhat worn.