The Balkans By Bicycle, W Papel Hamsher (1937)

A century-old memoire of a young scribbler’s Adriatic progress

Oct 273pp 978-15272-7869-8 £25

Epic adolescent odysseys feature in many cultures, be they gap years, wanderjahres, or sabbaticals. Few youthful wanderers produce travelogues that hold much interest, however, particularly when considered decades later.

When Bill Papel Hamsher typed.up his 1930 Vienna to Istanbul bicycle ride, however, he had distinct advantages. The 23-year-old from Warwickshire had already worked as a journalist for nearly a decade, and during a stint in Leipzig, he had acquired fluent German. 

His mission was nonetheless daring. On a second-hand steed  – Elfa – with scant funds, and no support, he rode 1,500 miles, surviving malaria, mechanical failure and freshly war-scarred borders.

He wheeled though Yugoslavia, Albania, Greece and Turkey, as well as spending 40 nights on Mount Athos, omphalos of Orthodox Christian monasticism. The mountainous peninsular is home to dozens of monasteries of various Eastern demonisations. Women have been barred from even landing on its shores for more than 1,000 years (and are prohibited to this day).

Hamsher paints a lively and readable picture of his travels, more interested in what happened to him than its context. Geopolitics intrudes occasionally, of course. He sees the refugee camps that result from the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922, as well as making a challenging passage of the resulting border.

Here he is, pondering the new international border in Fiume.

“I found this bridge at the end of a downhill ride which would bring me (as I thought) to the central point of the town, but which ended hard against a chain hung low across the roadway marking off the Yugoslav side of the international bridge of sighs. The Italian approach, I could see, boasted a similar barrier, and both were guarded by armed posses who glared at one another, while the streamlet separating them babbled ridicule. How was it, I wonder, that nobody thought of demolishing the existing bridge, when the new frontiers alienated town and suburb, and completing the picture of modern medievalism by erecting a drawbridge? Though a drawbridge, to be sure, might have obscured the view of the loungers, who from Yugoslavia could watch Italian tramcars or gape at the café crowds parading the Viale Benito Mussolini.”

Originally published in 1937, this edition is the work of Hamsher’s chlldren, nearly half a century after his 1975 death. They add a charming introduction detailing his subsequent career as prominent Daily Express reporter.

It is a beautiful volume, including many of the author’s photographs, and travel ephemera. My edition also included a fold out map of the journey and a couple of reproduced photographs. Printed and bound by Gomer Press in Wales, it is an object of delight.

Copies, are available from John Sandoe Books, G Heywood Hill, and Daunt Books.