The Heron in Isfahan

by Caroline Born

In 1973, Caroline Born and her best friend Izzy, fresh from school, set out on the hippie trail. It was a way of life where the journey itself was the goal, a journey taken with minimum possessions and an open heart, living each moment to the full. Without realising it, they were joining the vast fluid movement of young people who were traversing the trail from Europe to the exotic east.
Caroline’s strange encounters, touching friendships, and personal transformation were all recorded in a tiny red diary, as were her meals and meetings, her sleeping places and her feelings.
Now older and wiser and with the world a very different place, her younger and older selves meet in this book, as she welcomes her intrepid teenager self with respect and admiration.
Throughout this free-spirited memoir are many beautiful drawings and graphic mementos.

250 pages, Paperback

Published September 28, 2019

About the author

The Heron in Isfahan is my first self-published book under my new publishing name, heart song press. It has been exciting to be fully engaged in the editing, formatting and printing, as well as buying my ISBN. I recommend this process to anyone, despite being dyslexic! I have been in a weekly writing group which has been a hugely helpful process in developing my crafting of words.
I am choosing not to use Amazon. My book can be bought from my local bookshop, https://www.harbourbookshop.co.uk/

My book describes my journey at 19 to Greece and the middle east. In Israel I experienced my first yoga class which was transformational, leading me to 35 years of teaching and performing movement and dance with groups and individuals. I worked in many contexts, including men's prisons, hospitals and schools. I am passionate about body awareness and the inner life and the interconnectedness between emotion, mind and body and - I love dancing on the beach.

Reviews

[Alison Huntingford · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the early 70s nineteen year old Caroline and her friend Izzy set off on the adventure of a lifetime, following the hippy trail to the East. 'The Heron in Isfahan' is an enjoyable book full of descriptions of moments of great joy and spiritual beauty found along the way in 1973. it does not hesitate, however, to cover the darker side of such a venture and we can only marvel that Caroline comes out of it (relatively) unscathed. Her writing has a hypnotic quality and the diary entries keep you reading, accompanied by Caroline's beautiful original drawings. Anyone who has ever wanted to escape the day to day humdrum of life will find themselves identifying with this.

[Sue Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed 'The Heron in Isfahan', the true story of a year in the life of the author. Carrie Born set off open-hearted and open-minded, fresh from school, to see the world and to find herself. She found herself on the hippie trail, finding her feet in a life of complete freedom from conventional ties, living on almost nothing, getting odd jobs here and there in Greece and round the mediterranean, picking fruit on a kibbuz in Israel, making a hair-raising journey over the mountains to Jordan, then on to Iran. Forty years later she finds the 'little red 1973 Collins diary' in which rediscovers her 19 year old self. She tells her tale with a freshness and sensitivity, a lack of sentiment, vivid and honest descriptions of people and emotions, new ideas and beliefs - mostly exciting, but some frightening and disconcerting. There is a tender and joyful dialogue between her innocent young self, full of affection, eager to understand but often baffled by the people she meets, and the older but still joyful Carrie looking back on that year of wonder and excitement and self-discovery. This is a book in which the people she met are more significant than the places, though the golden light of a world far removed from southern England shines throughout. A surprising variety of characters come alive, the world she finds herself in is so real you feel you are there with her. The author has a gift for story telling. tThis is a captivating and thought-provoking story.

[Ian Mowll · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. There is an immediacy in the storytelling and a maturity in the reflections. As with all good real-life accounts, the author is deeply honest about her experiences which makes the book all the more compelling. Whilst reading the book, I felt as if I was a companion with the author on her great adventure, experiencing all of the highs and lows; I could not put it down.

[Richard Velleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book which I very much enjoyed. Caroline Born writes really well, and for me (as a 67 year old, so a couple of years older than Caroline) it was lovely revisiting that hippy scene. The book (and Caroline herself) covers a lot of ground, both geographically (Greece and its islands, Turkey, Israel, Iran) and as part of a huge learning curve for her, as she transitions from protected schoolgirl into a much more worldly-wise person, albeit with her charm and interest in life unabated. Very much recommended.

[Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It is a first hand account of a kind of rite of passage - a teenage woman who goes on an adventure travelling around Greece. It has a kind of innocence and openess in the writing. I loved the way that you get the perspective of the author as a mature woman looking back at her young self. Having been on many adventures in my young days, it reminds me of the excitement and highs and lows of travelling alone. Lets hope she writes another !

[Owen Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of a young woman's journey - both geographically and spiritually. Her accounts of the hippie trail east, and of the people she meets, are by turns and charming and alarming. The book vividly conjures up a more innocent time when setting out with no shoes, no money, and no clear destination seemed a proper way to begin travelling.

[Sue Ryall]

I really enjoyed this entertaining and inspiring account of the author and her friend's travels in Eurasia in their youth. It reminded me strongly of my travels hitching around Europe in my late teens with my friend Jane and it opened me to a trusting energy of taking things as they appear or crop up rather than only getting through my 'to do' list.

[Hafiz Ladell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A journey into the mystery of being

There is a time in life when the question “how did I get here?” assumes an irresistible fascination. Our sense of identity lies rooted in the narrative of our lives, in choices taken, for good or ill, opportunities embraced or declined. How often we wonder at the formative adventures of our youth!

“The Heron in Isfahan” is just such a dialogue between Spring and Autumn. The author’s point of departure is the tiny red diary she took with her as she and her friend, fresh from school, struck boldly out on the Hippie Trail, their only guidebook the cosmic nostrums of Richard Alpert’s Be Here Now. Alongside the “haunting and surreal” songs of the Incredible String Band, this would be enough to establish an instant bond with fellow seekers and travellers, all exploring the possibilities of a freedom that meant “nothing left to lose”. Those were evidently very different times.

There are adventures galore to relate, as she progresses East – not least, the outbreak of war shortly before her ferry is due to arrive in Israel. Caroline marvels at her teenage self as she encounters unexpected adversity, trusting that somehow all will be well, and grapples with the challenges of young adulthood. There is so much to be learned, not just from her instant friends on the road, but from the kindness – and otherwise – of complete strangers. All is keenly observed, material for her questing, and questioning soul.

I love this book. There is so much of interest in its incidental detail, its evocation of a vanished age, and its depiction of a way of life in which the miraculous is surely to be expected, at least somewhere around the next bend. The text is engaging and well presented, with the contrasting voices of youth and experience easily identified by different fonts, and adorned throughout with young Carrie’s delightful drawings and designs. Above all, though, this deeply touching memoir impresses the reader with its pervasive honesty and humanity, inviting us all on a journey into the mystery of being.

[Nick Price · Rating 5 out of 5]

1973 - 2019, Caroline Born’s little red Letts diary lay dozing like sleeping beauty up in her attic for 40+ years. And then, all these years later she comes across it and reawakens her 19 year old self, and her older self, having now traversed most of the years of her life, revisits those extraordinary times from today’s perspective. Time and circumstance gave her a great gift!

The book describes her nine month journey back then (and it’s difficult here not to pun on the significance of Caroline’s surname!). ‘Gap years’ were not the young person’s established itinerary back then. In those Hippy Trail days it was much more an open-ended launching into the seas of the unknown, a young life yearning for initiation perhaps. And that she got, through ecstatic times and wildly scary times, as she stripped down to her bare skin and experienced a very different world to her English boarding school days, which she had shared with her travelling companion Izzy.

So the book is not so much about the wisdom gained over the intervening years, it's more her older self looking back and putting flesh on the necessarily brief entries in her little Letts diary. And she’s opened out her odyssey beautifully.

The narrative is occasionally embellished with Caroline’s exquisite sketches, but it is the black and white photo of her in the Turkish mountains that for me really shows the unravelling mystery of a young woman poised, searching, at the gateway to adulthood and autonomy.

As Caroline says right at the start: ‘the journey I took was inevitable’. And now you can go on the Trail with her, safely!

[Susan Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed Caroline Born's account of her free-spirited journey across Europe to Greece, Israel and finally Iran, accompanied part of the way by her friend Izzy. She sets off from her comfortable Devon home with few possessions apart from her diary, some art materials and a small sewing kit, all of which are much used along the way. The book describes her encounters with other travellers, blissful times spent living by the sea in a state of openness and joy, and times of sickness, hardship and danger. In describing her experiences she alternates between looking back from her present-day life and quoting from the diary she wrote then, in which she shows remarkable maturity, courage and self-preservation. Leaving behind the security of home, material goods and the university place she has been offered, she chooses to live simply in the moment, sharing her life with others who are doing the same. When she comes home again she views the trappings of middle-class life from outside, having realised that what is most important to her is the sense of movement and connection to the body which she found while she was away. For those who, like me, were not brave enough or together enough to leave conventional life behind, this book is both an inspiration and a reminder of those times, recalling the language, the ideals and above all the hopefulness of those times. Caroline Born's journey gave her many gifts and in this delightful book she has shared them with us.

[Michael Elsmere · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was captivated by this book which took me on a wild journey through the 'freedom days,' of the 70's after the May 68 revolution in France and Woodstock in '69. A new world beckoned as the old political structures trembled and borders disappeared or faded.
Two young middle class, privately educated young women decide to shake off the shackles off their background and determine to cross Europe and the Near East overland on their way to Afghanistan! A journey which nowadays would be impossible and the story in a nuanced and delightful manner reflects this distance of collapsing time from then and now. What distances and yet in so few years.
The two women are thrust into worlds, places and amongst peoples they find it difficult to comprehend. They meet the hardships, the dangers and threats with new, rapidly honed intuitions and knowledge and a certain primal wildness which appears to shuffle them out of numerous 'dodgy' situations.
Throughout the landscapes are drawn with a keen eye and a strong intuitive sense of place that brings the exotic alive with sounds, scents and even tastes.
I read a lot of travel fiction and The Heron in Isfahan is on my shelf next to Passage to Juneau by Johnathon Raban. Its not out of place either. Strongly recommended.

[Camilla Gugenheim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lovely book is a memoir of a young woman's journey across the Middle East in the 1970's. But much more than that, it's a spiritual journey, an emotional journey, and a creative journey. It is a story very much of it's time, but also an eternal story of discovery, relationships, beauty, and culture. It is beautifully written using the diary that the teenage Caroline kept at the time to inspire the narrative written by the mature Caroline. She looks back at the young person she was, only to see that teenager looking right back at her. An amazing experience of seeing self reflection going both ways through time.

I hugely enjoyed reading it - enhanced by the lovely book production - for instance the diary entries are printed in a different colour and it is illustrated with the wonderful drawings and paintings she had made in her diary.

This is definitely a good read.

[Sylvia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just finished this book and it was amazing. It took me back to so many memories - places, words, ideas, assumptions - not just as a yes, I did that too, but really re-evaluating, yes, I used to believe that, do I still? How did doing all that impact, for good or bad, on who I am now?
I was a few years behind the author, so some things had changed and my experiences were obviously different, and that was interesting too.
Thank you so much to her for writing it, and for being so honest in it about how she felt, not just what she did, which is how so many memoirs end up.

[Thalia Vitali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Driven by a young girl’s poignant desire for ultimacy, this Odyssey of epic proportions, spanning inner and outer worlds, is a book you’ll find hard to put down!.. Page after page you’ll feel warmth and concern for the young Caroline who, with wide eyed innocence, embarks on a journey of discovery, enchantment but also harsh confrontation with the realities of hippie existence..As the journey is told with the hindsight of the mature author, in Rilke’s words, Caroline retraces “the days of her life, already lived / and held like a legend, and understood”…This sensitively written memoir can only be summed up as a supreme salute to the indomitable spirit of a young woman.

[Jane Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really a window into a bygone era - 1973, and the time of the hippies travelling overland, the Magic Bus (for those of us who remember that!) and hitching lifts without any thought of personal danger.

Caroline writes very evocatively, making for a delightful read, and an escape back in time, as if you were almost there alongside her, experiencing it all with her. Through her personal stories and musing, all based on her tiny writings from a diary of that year, the readers in invited in to enjoy that time with her.

Highly recommended!

[Ian Shearer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well that was a blast from the past!

Anyone curious about the 70's Hippy Trail, or anyone who would like a reminder, would benefit from reading this well-written book.

It really gives you an insight into what it was like, it brought back a load of memories for someone who did something similar, though perhaps not quite as adventurous, some 5 years after the author.

Hugely interesting, recommended.

[Caroline Born]

Hi to all my readers and would-be readers! I am not selling my book The Heron in Isfahan on Amazon but you can get it from me or my local bookshop https://www.harbourbookshop.co.uk/
Plus Arcturus in Totnes, Eastgate books Totnes and The Ivybridge Bookshop.

[Paul]

A personal window in to the angst and vitality of being young and free in the world. The writing took me clearly back to earlier times in my life that had faded somewhat, but was nice to be reminded of and see in contrast to life now, some 30 years later.