India - The Shimmering Dream

About Max Reisch

Maximilian Felix Gottfried Reisch (1912-1985) made his first pioneering long-distance journey when he was still a 20-year-old student in Vienna in 1933. Together with fellow-student Herbert Tichy on pillion he rode a 250cc Puch light motorcycle from Vienna to Bombay crossing Iraq Iran and Baluchistan as documented in this book. In another break from his studies in 1935 Reisch also undertook a motorcar expedition into Asia which became the round-the-world trip and is documented in the book An Incredible Journey. After the war Reisch worked in the family wholesale grocery business but by the 1950s he was again pushing back the boundaries of motor travel with journeys to the Middle East and the desert regions which so attracted him. Max wrote his adventures in a racy personal style which in no way obscures the carefully recorded details of the world he knew. -- The book's translator Alison Falls grew up in rural Herefordshire where her father was a general practitioner. A keen motorcyclist he introduced each of his three children to motorcycles as early as possible thus encouraging a love of independent travel. Alison studied modern languages at Newnham College Cambridge and subsequently taught French and German. When her brother came across this story of Max Reisch and the journey by light motorcycle to India in 1933 she was able to translate it for him and in the process developed an enthusiasm for all Reisch's books including An Incredible Journey which has also been published by Veloce Publishing.