Demob Happy

Herculean
9/10
Paul Theroux’s ‘Grand Tour of the Mediterranean’ is typical Theroux in many ways, the vagaries of his mood often colouring his perception of the places he visits, but he plays on his reputation as a misanthrop and cumugeon throughout this travelogue. After a comment on the opening page about ‘runty shunted trees and ugly houses’, [...]

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Journey to the ends of the Earth (and back)

9/10
The fifth Paul Theroux travel book I have read (i’ve posted reviews of ‘The Kingdom by the Sea’ and ‘The Old Patagonian Express’ here and here), ‘The Great Railway Bazaar‘ is in fact his first and arguably most rewarding. If you are familiar with Theroux’s writing you [...]

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Kingdom of heaven?
7/10
I have to say I’m surprised by some of the negative reviews of this book. Could it be perhaps the reviewers hadn’t read a Paul Theroux book before and didn’t know what to expect? UK fans of Theroux’s misanthropic, razor-sharp observations should have no qualms about the author turning his sights [...]

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Snapshots of the subcontinent
9/10
William Dalrymple’s ‘The Age of Kali’ carries the subtitle ‘Indian Travels and Encounters’ but actually includes writings on Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean island of Reunion (in fact a département of France). It is less a historical analysis in the mold of the brilliant ‘City of Djinns’ but a collection [...]

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Doing the locomotive with Paul Theroux
8/10
People tend to either love or hate Paul Theroux, and although I can sympathise with his detractors I belong to the former camp. He is an uncompromising author that calls things as he sees them, refusing to romanticise or sensationalise his experiences. Although he comes across as a misanthropist, it [...]

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Delhi days
9/10
William Dalrymple is probably the best travel writer of his generation, both in his ability to evoke a sense of time and place, and his skill for shedding light on history in an engaging and accessible way. In contrast to his first book, the brilliant ‘In Xanadu’, Dalrymple focuses less on his own experiences [...]

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