Pakistan guidebooks author dies at 83
GENEVA: Isobel Shaw, an Irish-born travel writer whose guidebooks introduced thousands of visitors to Pakistan, died on Wednesday (Nov 11) at her home in St-Cergue, Switzerland. She was 83. Ms Shaw first came to Pakistan in 1978, when her husband, Robert Shaw, was posted to Islamabad as the Ford Foundation’s representative. During her three years in Islamabad she learnt Urdu and, with Hilary…
Isobel Shaw, an Irish-born travel writer known for her insightful guidebooks on Pakistan, passed away at the age of 83 on November 11 in St-Cergue, Switzerland. She first visited Pakistan in 1978 when her husband held a post in Islamabad. Shaw and her collaborator, Hilary Adamson, authored "A Traveller's Guide to Pakistan" in 1981, marking one of the first modern guidebooks dedicated to the country.
Her subsequent work, "Pakistan Handbook" (1989), earned a shortlist for the Thomas Cook Travel and Guide Book Awards. Shaw, along with her son Ben, co-authored "The Pakistan Trekking Guide" (1993) and a trekking guide to the Karakoram and Hindu Kush (2013). Her expertise was highly regarded, with other writers endorsing her as the top guidebook author on Pakistan.
In the 1990s, she served as a tourism consultant to the Pakistani government and delivered the keynote speech at the Pakistan Tourism Convention in Karachi in 1993. In the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake, she campaigned for orthopaedic care for survivors. Shaw's final book, "Trekking Guide to the Karakoram and Hindu Kush of Northern Pakistan," was released by Vanguard Books in Lahore in 2013.
Born Isobel O’Beirne in Meath, Ireland, in 1943, she pursued her education at Newnham College, Cambridge. Having resided near Geneva since 1981, Shaw is survived by her three children, nine grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.
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