Richard Starks

Miriam Murcutt

In a Town Called Paradox

Chronicles the authors' trip from Barcelona to Malaga, and the ancient monasteries, ripe with history, art, and culture, they stayed in while traversing Spain.

Sleeping Our Way Through Spain's Ancient Monasteries

A Room with a Pew

Caught in a violent storm and blown far off their intended course, five American airmen--flying the dangerous Himalayan supply route known as "The Hump"--were forced to bail out just seconds before their plane ran out of fuel. To their astonishment, they found they had landed in the heart of Tibet. There they had to confront what, to them, seemed a bizarre--even alien--people. At the same time, they had to extricate themselves from the political turmoil that even then was raging around Tibet's right to be independent from China. Now back in print, Lost in Tibet is an extraordinary story of high adventure that sheds light on the remarkable Tibetan people, just at the moment when they were coming to terms with a hostile outside world.

The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive

Lost in Tibet

Along The River that Flows Uphill weaves the story of an Amazon journey with science, math and reason to explore the risks that are inherent in adventure travel. In 2005, Geographical - the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society in London - commissioned authors Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt to write an article about a strange river in Venezuela called the Casiquiare. This river - once the source of great controversy until it was explored by Alexander von Humboldt - is like no other, since it joins two, otherwise-separate river systems, the Orinoco and the Amazon, by apparently flowing up and over the watershed that divides them. Rivers are not meant to do that. For Richard Starks - an award-winning journalist, author and traveler - the writing commission offered a chance to test himself against the standards set by his childhood explorer-heroes - men like Burton, Speke, Livingstone and Stanley. For Miriam Murcutt - a writer, editor and former marketing executive - it represented a chance for adventure. The two writers hired a boat and a guide to take them 1,000 miles up the Orinoco and along the Casiquiare to the Rio Negro, which flows into the Amazon. They expected to travel only with their guide, but once on board his boat, they found he'd brought along his extended family, as well as a group of researchers that included a young and overly persistent entomologist. A few days into the journey, the boat took on another passenger - a Yanomami Indian from a primitive tribe that is reputedly among “the most violent people on Earth”. Further up river, FARC guerillas tried to hold the authors for ransom when they strayed over the border into Columbia. Along the River that Flows Uphill is more than an account of the authors' journey. It blends their travels with the contentious history and peculiar geography of the Casiquiare. And it examines the society and culture of the Yanomami Indians who live alongside it. The book is also a story of self-discovery. And it assesses risk - not just the risk that's part of all adventure travel, but also, by extension, the risk that's inherent in the adventure of life.

From the Orinoco to the Amazon

Along the River that Flows Uphill

A doomed mission sets five young Americans in a forbidden and hostile land.

Miriam Murcutt

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