Jacqui Furneaux has written a remarkable book about a remarkable life and a remarkable motorcycle journey. Over seven years Jacqui visited twenty countries and travelled over 40,000 miles on her Indian-made black Royal Enfield 500 Bullet.
But those bare facts don’t begin to tell the real story – the real story retold in this fascinating book is of Jacqui’s own journey, a captivating record of self-discovery. When eventually Jacqui reached home after her travels, her daughter asked: ‘So – what have you learned on your travels then mum?’ What Jacqui had learned through meeting countless people in many countries, being invited into homes of every kind, living among people of vastly different cultures who survive in widely varied climates and environments was that ‘When you’ve seen the highest mountains, the cleanest rivers, the whitest sandy beaches fringed with palm trees, the most beautiful forests and the widest deserts, people are most important; the stories they have to tell and the way they live their lives. Beauty lies in the ugliest of places. Love is universal and under our noses. It was love that made me complete my wandering life.’

Reading her book it seems no detail of any significance has slipped Jacqui’s memory. This is a detailed, graphic, and absorbing travel log. And it could be read simply as a record of an extraordinary motorcycle journey – not undertaken on a BMW ‘ocean liner’ of a bike but on a humble Indian-made Royal Enfield Bullet, with all the frustration and elation riding such a bike will always mean. She travelled with an openness and acceptance, nothing of the siege-mentality defensiveness that is too often the attitude adopted by ‘Brits abroad’!
But the book has a greater significance than a mere ‘travel log’. Jacqui’s life was deepened and immeasurably enriched by her travels and the people she encountered along the way. Her book has the potential to enrich us. And for that we should be grateful. It’s a record of personal romance, of adversity and danger, of encounters with pirates, of injury, frustrations and episodes of unwanted ‘attention’! With a disarming generosity of spirt, Jacqui shares with us her often deeply emotional personal journey. She bares her soul with a disarming openness, a complete absence of self-importance, and a captivating candour.
Needless to say I strongly recommend this unexpectedly engaging new book!
BOOK22 only £9.99 plus postage.