A YOUNG FALCONER'S WALKABOUT: HITCHHIKING THROUGH EUROPE AND AFRICA IN THE SIXTIES. By Lawrence Crowley.

2010 1st edition. 8vo (148 x 223mm). Pp272. Colour and b/w photographs, maps. Pictorial laminated boards.

Larry Crowley describes his 15-month sojourn travelling across Europe and Africa in 1963-64, after finishing national service with the US army in Germany. He vividly describes his many adventures which included hitching rides with smugglers, sleeping in police cells and roadsides, and eating whatever was available and cheap. It was truly a simpler time, as hedescribes the kindness of strangers in countries that have since been devastated by civil war and disease and are now considered dangerous for casual travelers. As an avid falconer since childhood, falconry was a main focus of Larry's travels. Crowley was fortunate to be able to work with famed falconer Jack Mavrogordato both in Africa where they captured birds and subsequently in England where they trained them. Throughout his diary, he kept a list of raptors he encountered and describes in detail the training and hunting he did with the birds. A cracking book - Jack Kerouac with a gauntlet.