Dust on my Shoes
Dust on my Shoes is a 1952 Australian travel book by Peter Pinney. The book, Pinney's first, recounted his journey from Greece to Burma. According to Pinney's ADB entry, the book "established his trademark laconic and picaresque style, and celebrated his haphazard, anti-authoritarian mode of travel."
Reception
The Daily Telegraph called it "an unusual book which I enjoyed."The Sunday Herald wrote "it is just about as readable and exciting a book as you could wish for a chilly stay-at-home evening."
The Sun called it "vivid, exciting and brilliantly written enough to lift it to the top
of its class. If at times the episodes seem a little posed, the language a little too self-
conscious, the polished deliberation of the style is welcome after the slapdash of the conventional travel book."
The Advertiser declared "This book is a good one of its kind, with a gripping quality in its author's ruthlessness."
The Adelaide News wrote "Pinney has a flair for the unusual and describes it well. He writes easily and fluently and people are of more interest to him than places. Definitely one of the
easiest-to-read travel yarns for many a long day."
The Argus wrote "Pinney has an eye and a mind for detail, he writes his pen pictures well; and he improves his style as he goes along. Some irritating immaturity in the early chapters dis-
appears later, and the flat patches become less pronounced."
The Age declared "as he travels, fledgling-author Pinney's pen becomes more easy and more sure. At once too contrived and too halting early, his style gradually displays confidence.
If his pen probes nowhere very deeply, if it illuminates not at all, it does at least range broadly —sketching in character, Incident, and scene with facility and no mean skill."
The Australian Woman's Weekly wrote "Mr. Pinney would in future be well advised to spend more time on revision. Loose writing crops up too often in his narrative."
The Bulletin called it "extraordinary".
The book was a best seller in Australia.