As they neared Karachi, Pakistan, the nakhoda (captain) of the launch, Ghani Adam, turned to Gavin Young and asked, "Why do you travel with us on Al Raza when you can fly"" Young says that he could have answered by quoting Graham Greene ("the universal desire to see a little further, before the surrender to old age and the blank certitude of death") or Rudyard Kipling ("For to admire an' for to see, / For to be'old this world so wide"). Instead, he said simply, "To meet you." This anecdote from Slow Boats to China (1981) captures Young's essence as a journalist and travel writer: it is this interest in people that makes his works so readable, entertaining, and instructive.

Gavin David Young was born in London on 24 April 1928. His father, army Lt. Col. Gavin David Young, was an avid swimmer, yachtsman, cricketer, rugby player, and horseman whose love of...