Tag: Jeffrey Tayler
Inspiration, Travel Writing and L’Esprit Frondeur
by Jeffrey Tayler | 02.25.10 | 11:16 AM ET
iStockPhoto What will you do that will be different and worthy of recounting? Jeffrey Tayler on the writer's life.
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Yahoo! BuzzTrekking the High Atlas, Taking the Pain
by Jeffrey Tayler | 11.30.09 | 11:01 AM ET
iStockPhoto A fall in Morocco's rugged mountains left Jeffrey Tayler writhing in agony -- and wondering whether to abandon his journey
Yunnan’s ‘Treats’
by Jeffrey Tayler | 09.03.09 | 10:27 AM ET
In one of Kunming's finest restaurants, Jeffrey Tayler samples the dragonfly larvae, bamboo bugs and grasshoppers
Michael Jackson and Me: Strangers in Moscow
by Jeffrey Tayler | 06.26.09 | 2:35 PM ET
REUTERS Jeffrey Tayler recalls a cold night in 1993 when he took a break from writing his first book to see a performance by the "King of Pop"
Face-Off on the Congo
by Jeffrey Tayler | 06.01.09 | 10:23 AM ET
REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly Jeffrey Tayler was cooking lunch along the Congo River when armed men approached, making demands. Enter the Big Man.
‘Murderers in Mausoleums’: What Counts Is Your Blood
by Jason Daley | 01.26.09 | 11:00 AM ET
Jeffrey Tayler's latest book is a masterful guide to the divisions that define so much of human civilization. Jason Daley explains.
Insanity and the Traveling Life
by Jeffrey Tayler | 01.21.09 | 8:33 AM ET
iStockPhoto In an essay adapted from a talk to writing students, Jeffrey Tayler makes the case for a life of mad (but not unhinged) adventures
Black Gold and the Golden Rule
by Jeffrey Tayler | 03.28.08 | 1:33 PM ET
In Nigeria, Africa's leading petrostate, a local oil worker named Sunday had every reason for rage and despair, but as Jeffrey Tayler discovered, he turned the other cheek.
Walking Off the Karakoram Highway
by Jeffrey Tayler | 08.20.07 | 11:17 AM ET
On a winding route to Pakistan's Rama Lake, taunted and ignored, Jeffrey Tayler learns the truth of the saying, "All politics is local"
The Woman in the Keffiyeh
by Jeffrey Tayler | 06.11.07 | 6:52 PM ET
Photo illustration by Jim Benning. In southernmost Turkey, women are known as the forbidden ones. So when a beautiful local invited Jeffrey Tayler for a ride on her horse-drawn cart and unmasked herself, he tried not to look. But he failed.
Killing Yourself to Make a Living
by Jeffrey Tayler | 09.20.06 | 9:51 PM ET
Photo by Kelly Amabile Jeffrey Tayler, who has undertaken harrowing expeditions in remote Africa and Siberia for books like "Facing the Congo," explains how to turn "thrilling inklings" into epic journeys -- and live to tell the tale.
World Hum’s Top 30 Travel Books
by World Hum | 06.25.06 | 7:00 PM ET
We recently counted down the best travel books of all time. Here's the entire list -- and loads of picks from World Hum readers.
No. 28: “Facing the Congo” by Jeffrey Tayler
by Rolf Potts | 05.04.06 | 12:29 PM ET
To mark our five-year anniversary, we’re counting down the top 30 travel books of all time, adding a new title each day this month.
Published: 2000
Territory covered: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa
Though “adventure” travel writing has come to the point where it often blurs with extreme sports coverage, Tayler’s chronicle of his 1995 pirogue trip down the Congo River proves that the most engrossing adventure tales don’t involve corporate sponsors and television crews. Frustrated with a dead-end life as a Moscow-based expatriate, the author travels to what was then Zaire to re-create British explorer Henry Stanley’s trip down the legendary Central African river in a dugout canoe. Tayler’s underlying impetus for the journey is to find meaning in his life by testing its limits—which proves to be no problem, as the author continually faces smothering heat, corrupt soldiers, lawlessness, hunger, swarms of insects, and a creeping sense of fear. Though Tayler occasionally illuminates moments of natural beauty, he never glosses over the reality of his journey, which is marked by an uncertain relationship with his guide, Desi, and ongoing suspicion from locals who, perhaps understandably, can’t understand why an outsider would want to submit himself to such a dangerous adventure. Drawn into Tayler’s heart of darkness, the reader feels the dread (and slaps at the mosquitoes) as the harrowing journey plays out.
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