A Hitchhiker's Triptych
Australian journalist John Gardiner's latest book is A Hitchhiker's Triptych.
The book is a step back in time to explore the lost world of hitchhiking during the 1970s.
A Hitchhiker's Triptych examines a different universe, which today's fast-paced digital domain has long forgotten.
A young man sets out from Australia on a journey of adventure as he vagabonds through England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
It is 1974, and times are much simpler.
No internet. No emails. No instant news feeds. A pre-workstation world.
We are taken back in time on a hitchhiking adventure. Where wonders are discovered just around the next corner, and over that distant horizon.
Readers join the realm of hitchhiking back in the 1970s, become part of a travelling tribe, who look out for each other, who survive in a most basic world of shared living, who enjoy sights, and wonders many people can only dream of.
They fend off danger, discover new stories and old history, do their best to dodge dubious advances from randy drivers, as they travel ever onward to that next destination.
It is a time when people communicate by snail mail – letters sent through the post. These letters are held for weeks by hostels and post offices, to give young travellers time to turn up to collect their mail, so they can learn about what is happening in their former lives back home.
The times of the 1970s are so different. There is no colour television back in Australia in 1974. Black and white only. We share the joy of our hitchhiker, in London, seeing colour television for the very first time.
We walk a world where flats in London can be rented for 15 quid a week. In Plymouth, for 7 pound a week.
Out on the road, every day is a new adventure.
We travel up through the madness of Northern Ireland, during the height of the Troubles. Murder, mayhem and extreme violence. A terrifying world for hitchhikers.
We explore the Orkney Islands, above Scotland, and examine long lost worlds of the Stone Age, where circles of standing stones and a tiny village, older than the pyramids, present mysteries for young travellers to marvel at.
A Hitchhiker's Triptych offers page after page of wonder. Takes us back to a time when hitchhiking was a common thing. When thousands of young people hit the road every day, and where drivers stopped to offer them a lift, and to share their journey.
This is a book not to be devoured in one huge bite. It should be savoured in small delicious pieces.
The journal is written that way. An adventure covering months, broken down into segments of stop/start brilliance.
There are weeks of reading in this wonderful memoir.
This is a compelling journey back into a world perhaps lost to us now. Does hitchhiking still exist?
If so, certainly not on the scale seen here, back in the 1970s, described so brilliantly in A HITCHHIKER'S TRIPTYCH.
The title of this book is strange. Jarring.
A triptych is a work in three parts. John's book is divided into three parts – individual journeys through England/Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
This book will appeal to everyone with a sense of adventure. Young and old. A journey back in time to a different universe, where we are introduced to the demanding domain of hitchhiking.
This book can be enjoyed now, will be enjoyed 20 years from now, and then on, into the future.
John Gardiner has brilliantly captured life on the road in the 1970s.
What a good read it is.
https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/hitchhikers-triptych
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