Tibetan Foothold - Murphy Dervla

Dervla Murphy's first epic journey from Ireland to India by bicycle, "Full Tilt", is a complete adventure in itself. For the young Irish woman, once she had got herself to India by July 1963, immersed herself in the life of the sub-continent, working for six months in an orphanage for Tibetan children in the refugee camps of Northern India. It is also the first volume of a trilogy of experience that continues with Tibetan Foothold.

Dervla vividly describes day-to-day life in the camps where hundreds of children are living in squalor while a handful of dedicated volunteers do their best to feed and care for them, attempting to keep disease at bay with limited resources. Here, she fell in love with the 'Tiblets' - the cheerful, tough, uncomplaining, independent and affectionate children of the new Tibet-in-exile. She pitches in with a helping hand wherever it is needed and finds time to visit the Dalai Lama and his entourage.Dervla's heart-rending account is interwoven with her own observations on the particular cultural and social problems associated with trying to help a people who have lived in isolation from the rest of the world and she becomes a perceptive witness to the inner realities and sometime inadequacies of aid-work.

First published in 1966, "Tibetan Foothold" not only confirmed Dervla's status as a traveller, but also revealed her to be a truly independent voice and an acute observer of politics and society.