‘In the autumn of 1985, more or less on the spur of the moment, we decided to go back to Ireland. We were not going to travel in the guise of sociologists, journalists or contemporary historians. We were going there, we hoped, to be shot at. We were going there to enjoy ourselves, an unfashionable aspiration in the 1980s . . .’

When Newby and his wife Wanda set out to find Ireland they set out on two wheels apiece. Their chosen mode of transport was described by The Bicycle Buyer’s Bible as – in one case – a Crossfell and – in the other – a Wild Cat. To the Irish, they were simply ‘boikes’. A whole catalog of expensive essentials extras later, one of the all-time greats of travel writing was equipped to journey round Ireland in low gear – with Wanda ‘to keep him out of trouble’.

Lashed by storms of winter, fuelled by Guinness and warmed by thermal underwear, they set out on their travels along the highways and byways of the Isle of Erin, with every pannier packed with maps, spare parts and a veritable library of books on Ireland’s stones and stories.