Goodreads: Harold Nicolson's diary of his first visit to the far East in 1957, when, as he approached the age of 70, he cruised to Java and back aboard the liner Willem Ruys of the Rotterdam Lloyd. Accompanied by his wife, Vita Sackville-West, he records details of routine and life aboard ship; his interaction with the crew and his fellow passengers; the happenings at home (revealed in the contents of his letters); and his thoughts - including the problem of obtaining contentment, and the reasons why, after the Napoleonic wars, young romantics indulged in melancholy rather than, as later, in anger. His diary entries date from Tuesday January 15 to Sunday March 17, as he journeyed across the North Atlantic, the Equator, the South Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian Ocean, and through the Malacca Strait to Java, before turning around for the homeward journey. His trip included a planned course of specialized reading (including Galen, Burton, Rousseau, Chateaubriand Novalis, Kierkegaard, and Connolly).

Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG (21 November 1886 – 1 May 1968) was a British diplomat, author, diarist and politician.For his seventieth birthday, Sir Harold Nicolson was given a two months' cruise from London to Java, a gift from his friends. The result is this wholly delightful book.