Apples in the Snow

by Geoffrey Moorhouse

Starting near the roof of the world on the Soviet Union's border with China, Geoffrey Moorhouse's journey through Central Asia winds across mountains, steppes and desert as well as the path of the retreating Red Army before reaching Tamburlaine's tomb in Samarkand. In this sequel to his award-winning book 'To the Frontier', he blends the dramatic history of this wild region with an absorbing, vivid portrait of its present.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, History

129 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Geoffrey Moorhouse, FRGS, FRSL, D.Litt, was an English journalist and author. He was born Geoffrey Heald in Bolton and took his stepfather's surname. He attended Bury Grammar School. He began writing as a journalist on the Bolton Evening News. At the age of 27, he joined the Manchester Guardian where he eventually became chief feature writer and combined writing book with journalism.

Many of his books were largely based on his travels. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society in 1972, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1982, and received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Warwick. His book To The Frontier won the Thomas Cook Award for the best travel book of its year in 1984. He had recently concentrated on Tudor history, with The Pilgrimage of Grace and Great Harry's Navy. He lived in a hill village in North Yorkshire. In an interview given at the University of Tuebingen in 1999, he described his approach to his writing.

All three of Moorhouse's marriages ended in divorce. He had two sons and two daughters, one of whom died of cancer in 1981. He died aged 77 of a stroke on 26 November 2009 and is survived by both sons and one daughter.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Some people are great travellers, for everyone else there are travel books. This however was one that I found disappointing. I was so disappointed that I wrote inside the back cover 'I could have written this book sitting in my armchair without ever having gone to Kazakhstan' before tossing it in the bag for the charity shop.

This was no doubt a gross over estimation of my own writing ability and probably little more than an expression of my scepticism towards travel books did they really see that or meet those people? How do I know that they didn't just sit in a library read some earlier accounts and make it all up?

To be fairer to Moorhouse this was a book written soon after the end of the Soviet Union and travel in Central Asia was without a doubt more difficult than it is today. Travellers without Russian in the former Soviet Union, let alone without Kazakh or any of the other central Asian languages are at a severe disadvantage in trying to make connections and learn about people's lives and how they live in their landscape. But then I wonder why did they do it when they could have presumably, hopefully, assuming a well oiled typewriter, a ready pen and a literary habit written something beguiling about somewhere that they could make a connection.

Apparently Kazakhstan is one of, or perhaps the source of the modern domesticated apple and Afghanistan was apparently the home of the domesticated carrot - our foods are a record of adventure and discovery wilder than many a life so there is authentic promise in the title even if this review is no more than a memory of an irritable reading.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moorhouse embarks on another adventure to harsh and sparsely populated lands, in this case Central Asia. He finds much to appreciate and many friends to make, including with veterans of the Russian army from the Afghan war, who he treats as brothers regardless of whatever they did in Afghanistan.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having dived into a couple of Moorhouse's earlier books (and relished them) this one was a bit lackluster. I think the subject matter bogs the reader down with details of past civilizations, however worthy. The book is slender, under 200 pages but is readable even if there are reams of paragraphs made up just of particulars. It is ok.

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sound travelogue by a connected individual. Geoffrey had the fortune to enter Uzbekistan before / during the close of the USSR and brings to life some colourful characters and tales including: Soviet Afghan war vets, judging an usual beauty pageant, and travelling in battered motors about the landscape. A little snobbish and Euro-centric, but amusing.

[Christopher Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moorhouse hits the former Soviet satellites, the Stans, including my old favourite, Samarkand.

[Evenzon Orogo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really do like it,though I struggled to read it...