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Give Me the World
At the age of twenty-five, Leila Hadley, bored with her New York PR job, buys two tickets aboard a cargo ship headed for Hong one for herself, and one for her six-year-old son Kippy. This decision sets her life on an entirely new course. After Manila, Hong Kong and Bangkok, their travels take an unexpected she meets four young men sailing their boat around the world, and convinces them to let her and Kippy join them.
Filled with sensual descriptions of the places she visits, lively accounts of the people and traditions, and intriguing characters, it is not only the luminous vitality of her prose that make this travelogue such a pleasure to read, but the courage of her decision to toss expectations to the wind and embrace all the adventures the world has to offer-an inspiration to the adventurer that lurks within us all.
Filled with sensual descriptions of the places she visits, lively accounts of the people and traditions, and intriguing characters, it is not only the luminous vitality of her prose that make this travelogue such a pleasure to read, but the courage of her decision to toss expectations to the wind and embrace all the adventures the world has to offer-an inspiration to the adventurer that lurks within us all.
354 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
About the author
Leila Hadley
16 books3 followersLeila Hadley (c. 1925–2009) was an American travel writer and New York Upper East Side socialite, whose career as an author began after taking a trip around the world at twenty-six. Her books include Give Me the World (1958) and A Journey With Elsa Cloud(1997).
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
July 18, 2026
I wasn't so sure about this book at the start. Leila Hadley, young New Yorker, divorced and with a small boy by twenty five years old, working in a well paid job, but spending all she earns with active social lifestyle - decides to throw it all in, take her six year old son and go travelling for a year to the Far East. The travel occurred in 1951.
For the first few chapters Hadley was a bit whiney, looked down on some people, and was a bit too much of a princess. I thought I might come a bit unstuck with the completion of the book, but thankfully it improved quite quickly.
Leaving the states she traveled to Manilla, then Hong Kong, Macau and then Bangkok. She saw sights and was entertained by other American friends of friends, or vague acquaintances, which was not uncommon in this era. Having a six year old with her both helped and hindered her experiences - I suppose she became 'safer' for people to have stay as she was less of a threat to the wives, but she could also not go out into the nightlife as much - although there were plenty of opportunities taken. Hadley was young and not unattractive - there are very few photographs of her on the internet, and throughout the book she receives lots of attention and especially on the navy ships she later visits turns all the heads!
In Singapore she randomly meets up with a group of young Americans who have a schooner named California that they have sailed part way around the world. There are four young men from California, and they quickly befriend Hadley. She begs them to take her and her son on the next leg of the journey and is turned down cold. It takes her weeks to change their minds.
From Singapore they sail to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) making calls en route in Penang, the Nicobar Islands. She does a great job writing about this voyage. This section is the highlight for the reader, and is clearly the highlight for the author too. I won't ruin it for other readers with more details, but when the California sails on, she promises to meet them in Beirut, despite not knowing where it is!
So on she travels to India and then Muscat (Oman) where she is not permitted to leave the ship, but manages to befriend some traders who smuggle her into the city and all her a good look around. On to Iraq, then Syria en route to Lebanon and to meet the California again.
At this point Hadley must send her son back to the USA as he has been gone a year and must attend school. So she joins the crew again, although one of the men had been called up to the Navy and had been replaced with another whom Hadley never took to. Many of her most bitchy moments were saved for George, and his for her, but they had to get along to be permitted to stay on board. The journey from Beirut to Malta had its moments but didn't reach the highs of the earlier leg for the reader of the author.
On the way to Malta they called at Cypress, Rhodes and Crete before Malta, where the California carried on, and Hadley travelled steerage on an Italian ship to New York. There is a little surprise event in the US before the end of the book which I won't spoil.
Despite the slow start, there were long sections I really enjoyed, so on balance this was a four star read.
****
For the first few chapters Hadley was a bit whiney, looked down on some people, and was a bit too much of a princess. I thought I might come a bit unstuck with the completion of the book, but thankfully it improved quite quickly.
Leaving the states she traveled to Manilla, then Hong Kong, Macau and then Bangkok. She saw sights and was entertained by other American friends of friends, or vague acquaintances, which was not uncommon in this era. Having a six year old with her both helped and hindered her experiences - I suppose she became 'safer' for people to have stay as she was less of a threat to the wives, but she could also not go out into the nightlife as much - although there were plenty of opportunities taken. Hadley was young and not unattractive - there are very few photographs of her on the internet, and throughout the book she receives lots of attention and especially on the navy ships she later visits turns all the heads!
In Singapore she randomly meets up with a group of young Americans who have a schooner named California that they have sailed part way around the world. There are four young men from California, and they quickly befriend Hadley. She begs them to take her and her son on the next leg of the journey and is turned down cold. It takes her weeks to change their minds.
From Singapore they sail to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) making calls en route in Penang, the Nicobar Islands. She does a great job writing about this voyage. This section is the highlight for the reader, and is clearly the highlight for the author too. I won't ruin it for other readers with more details, but when the California sails on, she promises to meet them in Beirut, despite not knowing where it is!
So on she travels to India and then Muscat (Oman) where she is not permitted to leave the ship, but manages to befriend some traders who smuggle her into the city and all her a good look around. On to Iraq, then Syria en route to Lebanon and to meet the California again.
At this point Hadley must send her son back to the USA as he has been gone a year and must attend school. So she joins the crew again, although one of the men had been called up to the Navy and had been replaced with another whom Hadley never took to. Many of her most bitchy moments were saved for George, and his for her, but they had to get along to be permitted to stay on board. The journey from Beirut to Malta had its moments but didn't reach the highs of the earlier leg for the reader of the author.
On the way to Malta they called at Cypress, Rhodes and Crete before Malta, where the California carried on, and Hadley travelled steerage on an Italian ship to New York. There is a little surprise event in the US before the end of the book which I won't spoil.
Despite the slow start, there were long sections I really enjoyed, so on balance this was a four star read.
****
September 13, 2008
Since I can't give this book 4.5 stars, I rounded it up to five. This is the travelogue of Leila Hadley, a 25-year-old who embarks on a journey around the world via plane, train, and (mostly) sailing vessel, with her small son in tow. She does this in the 1950s, when such an action raises eyebrows. But throughout the book it's clear Hadley does not mind what people think of her. She's spunky, but she has limits.
The appeal of this book, for me, lies not with Hadley as an individual but with her capability as a writer. She is brilliant. Her descriptions of India, of the Middle East, of Greece, and of sailing for months on a schooner with four scruffy Americans -- all are astonishing in their clarity and beauty. More than almost any other author I've read, Hadley painted complete pictures in my mind. I feel like I went along for the ride and emerged, at the other end of her book, with my own vivid memories of the streets of Bombay and the ruins at Rhodes. Travelers or not, everyone should taste Hadley's prose: it's like eating a slice of literary cheesecake.
The appeal of this book, for me, lies not with Hadley as an individual but with her capability as a writer. She is brilliant. Her descriptions of India, of the Middle East, of Greece, and of sailing for months on a schooner with four scruffy Americans -- all are astonishing in their clarity and beauty. More than almost any other author I've read, Hadley painted complete pictures in my mind. I feel like I went along for the ride and emerged, at the other end of her book, with my own vivid memories of the streets of Bombay and the ruins at Rhodes. Travelers or not, everyone should taste Hadley's prose: it's like eating a slice of literary cheesecake.
April 18, 2021
I think I would’ve liked it more had Leila not been insufferable at every turn.
February 22, 2024
Vivid imagery but sometimes long-winded.
March 15, 2025
THE ONLY reason im not giving this a 5 is bc i think it’s kinda messed up how she brought her son along all except for a couple island countries like, commit or don’t!
September 29, 2018
I would really rate this 3.5 stars. I enjoyed this kind of magical journey most only dream of, but some of it waxed on a bit too much. Many of the descriptions were too overwhelming in the details, so that I had to start skimming, as I feared I would never finish this book. I also wished there had been a map(s) to refer to. I mostly read this on the bus, so it was not convenient to stop and look at a map on the internet or in an atlas. Hadley really did it all and I admire her attitude and courage to explore the world and life aboard a sailing schooner.
January 26, 2012
Some of the best and most evocative writing I've ever read. Beautiful and inspiring.
Read
May 6, 2009i loved this book. i wasn't sure what to think, because of leila hadley's odd history, but i keep thinking about this book and her since i've read it. i read her memoir, a journey with elsa cloud, before i read this, and it is very strange to read both. it makes me really wonder about the woman herself. why did she find it necessary to disguise the names of the people in the later book, when she didn't in this one? what was her relationship with her children really like? was she the stuck-up debutante, or a young woman curious and adventurous, as she seems in this book?
give me the world is a true travel book in that the characters don't know where they're going or even exactly why they're doing what they're doing, except that they're just moving on. it is not the kind of thing you'd expect to find taking place in the fifties. that makes it very valuable to those of us that didn't live through that time - there was way more interesting going on then than we tend to realise. the contrast between leila's sheltered old-fashioned life and her method of traveling, a lone woman on a ship with 4 young men, is almost startling.
give me the world is a true travel book in that the characters don't know where they're going or even exactly why they're doing what they're doing, except that they're just moving on. it is not the kind of thing you'd expect to find taking place in the fifties. that makes it very valuable to those of us that didn't live through that time - there was way more interesting going on then than we tend to realise. the contrast between leila's sheltered old-fashioned life and her method of traveling, a lone woman on a ship with 4 young men, is almost startling.
March 27, 2009
Amazing travel memoir by woman who left her HR job in NYC and took her six-year-old son around the world for a year and a half in 1951-2! She travels all through the far and near east when the world was much less homogenous. She is fearless, a beautiful writer who tells you about the unpleasant and the rapturous both. And then there's her whole romance with the sailing vessel, the California, and how she travels with four American sailors and her son. And, well, there's more, but I'm often accused of giving too much away. Leila Hadley is a courageous, adventurous woman. If she can do it, then we have no excuses. Title is from a poem by W. B. Yeats.
June 20, 2011
What an amazing story. I had to keep reminding myself that what the author was describing took place in 1951-52. At age 25, she leaves her job in New York City and sails on a cargo ship to Hong Kong with her six-year-old son. From there she travels to Manila, Hong Kong and Bangkok. She then convince four young men sailing on the California to allow her and her son to join them. Her descriptions of their journey are impressive. I especially enjoyed this version because it contained an afterward by the author which gives updated information on what happened to her and her sailing companions after the trip was completed.
April 22, 2008
I forget how I stumbled across this book, but it's become one of my favorites. It's hard to imagine this took place in the 1950s - she was only 25 and took her 6 yr old son with her - and sailed around the world with a group of men! Crazy! Her writing is captivating but the book drag at times (why I didn't give it 5 stars).
March 18, 2015
The first 70-100 pages are a little slow but once she joins the schooner, the California, it gets much more interesting. I read up on the author Leila Hadley after reading it and turns out she is not a ver admirable woman. But she writes a very nice travel journal about interesting parts of the world.
March 24, 2016
Terrific travel memoir.
Hadley's descriptive language, applied to the broad array of cultures visited in her post-War, pre-"One World" trip, with her gaining experience (both culturally and as a "crew member" on a schooner) the whole time, amounts to an education for the reader.
I really enjoyed it.
Hadley's descriptive language, applied to the broad array of cultures visited in her post-War, pre-"One World" trip, with her gaining experience (both culturally and as a "crew member" on a schooner) the whole time, amounts to an education for the reader.
I really enjoyed it.
August 28, 2007
I'm savoring this book slowly because it is so rich and full
of detail. The locations are mindblowing. She's 25 and takes off to travel for what seems like a year with her young son. Having him along doesn't stop her from having all sorts of adventures. Very well written.
of detail. The locations are mindblowing. She's 25 and takes off to travel for what seems like a year with her young son. Having him along doesn't stop her from having all sorts of adventures. Very well written.
May 2, 2008
Love this book! Especially love the afterword. She is one author that I would love to have dinner with! Travelogue can be overly descriptive in parts but her prose is impeccable. I wish I had her tenacious spirit!
July 21, 2014
This might be my favorite book of all time. I adore Leila's writing style... and her gumption! It's a beautifully told story of a truly incredible trip. A must read for anyone who loves great travel writing.
June 4, 2008
One of the most inspiring, empowering books I've ever read.
July 9, 2009
I did enjoy this book mainly because she traveled to several places that I have been. She did a great job describing the experiences.
December 31, 2012
A bit slow going.
April 2, 2013
Love this book. Would take this adventure with my 6yo in a heartbeat - if it were the 1950s. beautiful story and beautiful descriptions of the countries she visits.
Want to Read
August 22, 2013Elliott Bay Book Company Staff Pick (Leah)
May 22, 2013
What a wonderful
Read! I loved this book!
Read! I loved this book!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews