Books
Moons and Aurochs: Romanian journeys
September 2007
One of these days someone is going to write a book explaining why so many Old Etonians become explorers and exceptionally good travel writers. I mean, seriously, no other school on the planet has produced travel writers of the calibre of Sir Joseph Banks, Wilfred Thesiger, Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, Colin Thubron, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, William Shawcross and Alan Ogden. Each has, or had, their own specific enthusiasm. In the case of Ogden, a former Grenadier Guard, his expertise is Romania. This is his fourth book on the country. He has previously written about English travellers in Romania (Romania Revisited), the painted monasteries of Moldavia (Revelations of Byzantium) and his personal travels through Transylvania (Winds of Sorrow). His knowledge of the country is prodigious and this new book is an intimate portrait of the untouched and timeless rural culture of the country. It opens with a visit to the Lipovan people of the Danube Delta; recounts the extraordinary story of Stefan Mazepa who, having been caught dalliancing with a nobleman's wife, was tied naked to a horse which then bolted through a forest of briars and brambles; visits an aristocratic family whose life was turned upside down during the Communist era; and goes searching for the Csangos (a group of Roman Catholic Hungarians who have lived in Moldavia since the 13 th century). And that is only a taste of the book's riches. The end result is a collection of fascinating stories about the diverse minorities of Romania.
The average Australian traveller's lack of knowledge or interest in Eastern Europe is unforgivable. We know so little about these ancient cultures. Ask people about Romania and they may remember Nicolae Ceausescu and the horrific orphanages. They will know nothing of the artistic glories of the painted monasteries in Moldavia, the extraordinary history of a country which has been buffeted over the centuries by the Ottomans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Greater Russia, or the uniqueness of the peasant cultures which, remarkably, remain virtually intact – as though held in aspic. This fascinating book offers a rare opportunity to experience timeless rural Europe as it was before the industrial revolution.
Oh, yes, and for those seeking a definition of an "auroch"? Ogden explains that they were "those great oxen of antiquity, a mix between a bison and a prize Spanish bull", that they were "once the symbol of the Principality of Moldavia" and that they died out at the beginning of the seventeenth century."
Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne Age, 2 August 2008
Travel
History
New editions
All the above titles can be ordered from:
John Sandoe (Books) Ltd
10 Blacklands Terrace, Chelsea, London, SW3 2SRB
Telephone orders: 00 44 20 7589 9473
