There and Back
On sale
26th September 2024
Price: £30
THE FOURTH VOLUME OF MICHAEL PALIN’S BESTSELLING DIARIES
A new millennium, and a new chapter for Michael Palin unfolds. With a Hemingway travel project testing his confidence, doubts creeping in about his abilities as a writer, the death of his great friend George Harrison and the last of his children leaving home, the dawn of the twenty-first century sees Michael at his most reflective yet.
Over the next 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.
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 constant supporting structures in his life: his family, his friendships and, of course, the Pythons.
A new millennium, and a new chapter for Michael Palin unfolds. With a Hemingway travel project testing his confidence, doubts creeping in about his abilities as a writer, the death of his great friend George Harrison and the last of his children leaving home, the dawn of the twenty-first century sees Michael at his most reflective yet.
Over the next 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.
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 constant supporting structures in his life: his family, his friendships and, of course, the Pythons.
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Reviews
The dynamic [between the Pythons] remains eternally fascinating: there's a permanent tension and endless bickering, but also a huge, unshakeable love . . . [Palin is] less of a national treasure and more of a sacred monument
A friend's foolishness, his own fears, the minutiae of preparing for an overseas expedition, Palin writes it all down, so we know what happened and so he does as well . . . Perhaps that's why diaries are such an engaging literary form. Like our own lives they veer between the everyday and the profound
Michael Palin knows what makes a good diary . . . it's his attention to the mundane, above all, that makes his diaries so enjoyable to read