Michael Palin

Author Michael Palin was 60 years old on the day that I finished reading this book. Moreover, I was presented with the hard back version of this book by way of a Christmas present by son Andrew: personally signed by the author, too, no less!

Palin says,

To Duncan – best wishes
Michael Palin ... and here's the proof!

Not everyone can say that can they?

The idea behind the book is that Palin and what looks like a horde of people swanned their way through, up, around and across the Sahara Desert for quite a long time and then told us all about it. There is a BBC television series to accompany this journey but I have seen just one part of one programme.

The photography in this book ranges from very good to stunning and they have captured some of the atmosphere of Africa very well indeed: perhaps one downside is that the photographs create the impression that Palin has done this trip entirely alone:

Michael at the railway station
Michael grits his teeth
Michael looks jaded

are the kind of captions to the photographs you could find in this book!

The success of a book such as this centres around the author’s eye for detail, the unusual and the important. Palin has religiously kept us informed of his daily movements, including his bowel movements, and has recorded facts, feelings and opinions as he trundled along. My favourite recollection is on page 48:

Our taxi driver has perfected the technique of roaring up to the vehicle in front, hugging its slipstream, but not overtaking until he can clearly see an oncoming vehicle.

The sentence encapsulates driving outside the UK don’t you think?

Page 23 shows the avuncular Palin at his daftest: he got himself embroiled in a football match with children whose average age he records as being around 16 years. The match ended thuswise for Palin:

… One more kick and something goes twang internally, and I hobble around, cursing …

The trip starts at Gibraltar and by way of Morocco, Algeria … Algeria and Gibraltar takes in the Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Libya and Tunisia.

Palin gives us some idea that trips like this are daunting and difficult: living in the conditions he describes for such a long period in such intense heat with all that san must have driven him to distraction from time to time. The uncertainty they faced must have been frustrating too: border crossings, waiting for a Camel train, having to endure the driving. I can imagine that the television programme presents a series of images that make us think that Palin’s life is nothing but glamour; but that can only be partly true

Take a look at the photo on page 144: The hottest meal of my life. Temperatures of 55C … includes the impression that Palin has failed to heed the safe sun warnings as he seems to have spent his time in the Sahara sunning himself. Tut tut!

As I started to read this book I met someone who had done pretty much the same cross Saharan journey that Palin did only 20 years ago: these people really exist!

A nice coffee table book this, then, that I read from cover to cover and that I enjoyed. I would recommend this book to anyone but perhaps the paperback version is worth waiting for. The lasting impression of this book is that I feel that Palin was not at his best in this saga: either he was holding himself back a little or he didn’t enjoy this experience as much as his words tried to convey. Only Palin knows!

 

Duncan Williamson
22 May2003