Maximilian Felix Gottfried Reisch (1912-1985) made his first pioneering long-distance journey when he was still a 20-year-old student in Vienna in 1933. Together with fellow-student Herbert Tichy on pillion, he rode a 250cc Puch light motorcycle from Vienna to Bombay, crossing Iraq, Iran and Baluchistan: this story is documented in his book "India - The Shimmering Dream"). In another break from his studies in 1935, Reisch undertook a motorcar expedition into Asia which became the round-the-world trip documented in "An Incredible Journey".
After the war, Reisch worked in the family wholesale grocery business, but by the 1950s he was again pushing back the boundaries of motor travel with journeys to the Middle East and the desert regions which so attracted him.
Max wrote his adventures in a racy personal style which in no way obscures the carefully recorded details of the world he knew.