The 2017 recipient of the Edward Stanford Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing, and our good friend Sir Michael Palin has been gracing our televisions again with his three-part Channel 5 series Michael Palin in Nigeria. If that has inspired you to read/ re-read his back catalogue, Orion have just re-released his bestselling travel books with revamped paperback covers.
Around The World In Eighty Days
£10.99
Originally published in 1989
Following the route taken by Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier, Michael Palin set out to circumnavigate the world. The rules were simple, but nothing else about the trip was straightforward…
From a tour of Venice on a rubbish barge to ship spotting at the Suez Canal and the bicycle rush hour and snake snacks in China, this is an unparalleled tribute to man’s ability to make life difficult for himself.
£10.99
Originally published in 1992
Michael Palin’s adventure begins when he is enrolled in the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society…
Travelling by train, truck, raft, Ski-Doo, barge, balloon and bicycle, Michael Palin experiences every extreme the world has to offer. Braving the cold grip of the Arctic Circle, and the swirling snowstorms of Spitsbergen, Palin has to cope with friendly locals, occasional gunfire and his own unruly digestive system before he can finally stand in Scott’s shoes at the South Pole, in the Land of the Midnight Sun.
£10.99
Originally published in 1997
For almost a year, Michael Palin travelled through 18 countries on the perimeter of the world’s largest ocean, in a spectacular journey of contrasts, drama and beauty.
From head-hunters in Borneo to a meal of maggots in Mexico, his route takes him to some of the most politically volatile and physically demanding places on Earth. Whether climbing the Exalted Mountains in China, dodging icebergs in Chile, or being taken short on the banks of the Amazon, Michael Palin paints a vivid picture of the people and places around him.
Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure
£10.99
Originally published in 1999
When Michael Palin was researching for his novel ‘Hemingway’s Chair’ his interest was stimulated by Hemingway’s appetite for travel and ‘Papa’s’ evocations of the places he knew. Hemingway remains a compelling figure, and Palin’s goal was to revisit Hemingway’s world.
This book includes the American West (‘wide lawns and narrow minds’), Idaho, Michigan (‘fly fishing, hunting’), Europe in the First World (where Hemingway was wounded serving in the Ambulance Brigade), Cuba (where Hemingway wrote ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’), Paris in the Roaring Twenties and Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Sun Valley and Key West – where the Hemingway lookalike competition is an annual event.
£10.99
Originally published in 2002
Michael Palin’s epic voyages have seen him circumnavigate the globe, travel from the North to the South Pole and circle the countries of the Pacific Ocean, but this was perhaps the greatest challenge yet: to cross the vast and merciless Sahara desert.
As the journey unfolds, the Sahara reveals not the emptiness of endless sand dunes, but a huge and diverse range of cultures and landscapes and a long history of commerce and conquest stretching from the time of the ancient Egyptians to the oil-rich Islamic republics of today.
On his way, he encounters dangers such as camel stew, being run over by the Paris-Dakar rally and Dakar nightlife, as well as returning to the original spot where ‘The Life of Brian’ was filmed.
£10.99
Originally published in 2004
Having risen to the challenge of seas, poles, dhows and deserts, the highest mountains in the world were a natural target for Michael Palin. In a journey rarely, if ever, attempted before, in 6 months of hard travelling Palin takes on the full length of the Himalaya including the Khyber Pass, the hidden valleys of the Hindu Kush, ancient cities like Peshawar and Lahore, the mighty peaks of K2, Annapurna and Everest, the gorges of the Yangtze, the tribal lands of the Indo-Burmese border and the vast Brahmaputra delta in Bangladesh.
Facing altitudes as high as 17,500 feet as well as some of the world’s deepest gorges, Palin also passed through political flashpoints like Pakistan’s remote north-west frontier, terrorist-torn Kashmir and the mountains of Nagaland, only recently open to visitors.
£10.99
Originally published in 2007
Until the early 1990s, when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, travelling behind the iron curtain was never easy. In undertaking his new journey through Eastern Europe, breathing in its rich history, and exquisite sights and talking to its diverse peoples, Michael fills what has been a void in his own experience and that of very many others.
This 20-country adventure is very much a voyage of discovery, from the snows of the Julian Alps to the beauty of the Baltic sea, he finds himself in countries he’d barely heard of, many unfamiliar and mysterious, all with tragic histories and much brighter futures.
£10.99
Originally published in 2012
From the Venezuelan border and the forests of the Lost World, where he encounters the Yanomami tribe and their ongoing territorial war with the gold miners, Michael Palin explores this vast and disparate nation in his inimitable way. He journeys into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. He travels down the north-east coast to meet the descendants of African slaves with their vibrant culture of rituals, festivals and music. He visits the shanty towns of Rio and the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. He goes to Sao Paolo, where the rich commute by helicopter. He travels south to meet German and Japanese communities, meets supermodels in the making and wealthy gauchos in the Pantanal before ending his journey at the spectacular Iguacu Falls.
NEW
Michael Palin’s latest book is now available in paperback and we have signed copies while stocks last:
Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire
£10.99
From the time Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, he was determined to find out more about him. He studied every relevant official document. He tracked down what remained of his great-uncle Harry’s diaries and letters, and pored over photographs of First World War battle scenes to see whether Harry appeared in any of them. He walked the route Harry took on that fatal, final day of his life amid the mud of northern France.
And as he did so, a life that had previously existed in the shadows was revealed to him. Great-Uncle Harry is an utterly compelling account of an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life. A blend of biography, history, travelogue and personal memoir this is Michael Palin at his very finest.