It’s always such an honour when Sir Michael Palin drops by to sign his books. The latest book by the former recipient of the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing, There and Back: Diaries 1999-2009, is the fourth volume of his bestselling diaries.
Over these ten years, we watch through Michael’s eyes as the world reels from the successive shocks of September 11, the 7/7 bombings and the global financial crash. With the warmth and gentle empathy that have endeared him to millions of fans over the decades, Michael documents the day-to-day detail of living in a world buffeted by such powerful winds of change.
And amidst this turbulence, one thing remains constant: Michael’s irrepressible curiosity and thirst for adventure. These diaries follow his life as he comes and goes through the filming of four blockbuster travel documentaries – Hemingway Adventure, Sahara, Himalaya and New Europe – and reaches the peak of his fame as a beloved TV traveller. And five years on from the last of his children flying the nest, Michael embarks on his greatest adventure yet: becoming a besotted grandfather.
There and Back is a new window into the world of Michael Palin, one that reveals more than ever the strength and succour he draws from those ever-present supporting structures in his life: his family, his friendships and, of course, the Pythons.
Signed copies of There and Back: Diaries 1999-2009 are available now for £30
We also have signed copies of Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire. From the time, many years ago, when Michael Palin first heard that his grandfather had a brother, Harry, who died in tragic circumstances, he was determined to find out more about him.
The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work. Michael 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.
