{"title":"Robert Crisp","description":"Robert Crisp was an extraordinary man: a Test cricketer described by Wisden as \"one of the most extraordinary men to play Test cricket\"; a decorated soldier (DSO, MC); a journalist who founded the South African newspaper, Drum, and wrote for The East Anglian Daily Times and The Sunday Express; an author, a mink farmer, an adventurer, a charmer. In short, a man of many talents.","products":[{"product_id":"zen-and-the-art-of-donkey-maintenance-paperback","title":"Zen and the Art of Donkey Maintenance - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI looked again at the folded map of Europe in my hand. Then I crossed the road to the Continental booking office and bought a ticket for Salzburg in Austria. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \"Return?\" asked the clerk.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e \"Definitely not,\" I told him. \u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn December 1966, the New Year looked exciting for fifty-five-year-old Robert Crisp. As a man whose youth was spent in constant adventure, leading a calm, domestic life in England had become a burden from which he needed to break free. Named by \u003ci\u003eWisden\u003c\/i\u003e as \"One of the most extraordinary men ever to play Test cricket,\" Crisp served as a soldier in the Second World War in Greece and North Africa for which he was decorated for bravery, later becoming a writer and journalist. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith his marriage over and his sons old enough to fend for themselves, Crisp decided to start a new life. With sixty pounds in his pocket, his wartime disability pension of ten pounds a month, and a plan to write about his adventures under a pseudonym, his journey began. Through twenty columns filed from abroad over years of rustic living and travel, Crisp, as Peter White, shared his experiences of hitch-hiking through Yugoslavia, settling in a beach shack in Greece where he attempted to cultivate the stubborn land, and a nearly fatal solo boat trip around Corfu. As the first year of his dream life came to a close, he found out that the stomach pain he had been suffering was not a side effect of too much Greek wine, but cancer. With a prediction of only one year to live, he set off on a trek around Crete, his only companion a donkey with plenty of personality. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRobert Crisp's account of his travels, originally serialised in the \u003ci\u003eSunday Express\u003c\/i\u003e, is an honest, funny, touching account of this charming rogue's journey through a foreign land and culture in search of inner peace and happiness.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67967182143711,"sku":"9781448215232","price":30.58,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/35qmLxoU0i9781448215232.webp?v=1791733937"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/robert-crisp.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}