Michael Palin

SAHARA

Probably best known as a comic actor in Monty Python and numerous films, Michael Palin has also made a number of televised journeys in various parts of the world. The most recent of these, carried out intermittently between February 2001 and February 2002, took him and his team across the Sahara, covering nearly 10,000 miles and visiting Gibraltar, Morocco, Algeria, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Libya, and Tunisia.

Palin writes well, with the light touch one would expect; he makes an agreeable travelling companion. He appears to be able to get on well with all kinds of people met on the way and fits in easily wherever he goes. The book is composed of numerous short sections in diary form, each devoted to a particular section of the journey, which makes it ideal for dipping into, perhaps when one is travelling oneself. The photographs are excellent.

19 August 2003