Toy Barbara (w3441)
Hits: 10
- Description: Barbara Toy was an Australian-British travel writer, theatrical director, playwright and screenwriter. After managing the Richmond Theatre in London and driving an ambulance during the Blitz, her life changed in 1950 when a colleague bet her she could not drive to Baghdad. She immediately purchased a second-hand 1950 Land Rover Series I 80" soft-top, which she named "Pollyanna", and set off. A brigadier she met in Gibraltar called her a "fool on wheels" - the title of her first book. She drove east across North Africa - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt - then by ship to Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, winning the bet. She is recognised as one of the first people, and the first woman, to pioneer long-distance solo overland expeditions by Land Rover, predating the celebrated six-man Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition by nearly five years. Her subsequent journeys covered Libya (1952), Saudi Arabia (1953) - where she became one of the first women permitted to travel solo in the country, receiving gifts from King Abdulaziz - and a round-the-world journey (1956-57) through Turkey, Pakistan, Asia, Australia and the United States, recounted in Columbus Was Right! (1958). In 1959 she drove from Libya through the Sahara, the Congo and Ethiopia in search of the Queen of Sheba. By 1959, Pollyanna had covered over 210,000 miles. In 1990, aged 82, she completed a second round-the-world journey in the original Pollyanna, arriving home just before Christmas
- Alias-Pseudonimo-Pseudonyme: -
- Nationality-Nazionalità-Nationalité: Australia
- Birth/death-Nascita/morte-Naissance/mort: 1908-2001
- Means of transport-Mezzo di trasporto-Moyen de transport: Car or similar, Mezzi a motore, Moyen motorisé
- Geographical description-Riferimento geografico-Référence géographique: Around the World, Giro del mondo, Tour du monde
- Internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Toy
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q15995547
- Additional references-Riferimenti complementari-Références complémentaires: Toy, Barbara. A Fool on Wheels: Tangier to Baghdad by Land Rover. London: John Murray, 1955.
| Precursori, Forerunners, Précurseurs |
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| Viaggi stravaganti, Weird travels, Voyages insolites |
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| Globetrotter contemporanei, Contemporary globetrotters, Globetrotteurs contemporains |
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| Personaggi fittizi, Fictional character, Personnages de fiction |
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Museum of Travel and Tourism is a virtual museum dedicated to travel and tourism, founded in 2016. It began as a research platform focused on the biographies of women and men travelers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and has gradually expanded to include contemporary journeys.
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