Into Iraq: Michael Palin

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Every time he’s travelled since then (bar the last one to North Korea) I’ve had the accompanying book as a Christmas present - and collectively they remain my most treasured christmas presents. The juxtaposition between modern Iraq and the ruins of the ancient civilisations which stretch back to the dawn of civilisation is extreme. Ik vind reisboeken veel leuker als ze foto's hebben door het boek heen, en dus niet ergens in het midden een velletje of zo, of helemaal niks. Now he shares the journal he meticulously kept during his trip, in which he describes the very varied places he visited, the people he met and the impressions he formed of a country that few outsiders now venture to see. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data.

Als Michael ihm sagt, dass er an seinem Geburtstag nicht dabei sein kann, meint er nur, dass der Opa eben dafür sorgen soll, das er im nächsten Jahr wieder dabei ist. His journeys have taken him across the world, the North and South Poles, the Sahara desert, the Himalayas and most recently, Eastern Europe. I haven’t seen that so not sure if there’s stuff here he couldn’t say on camera but was fun reading for an insight into Iraq today. His words in books, supplemented with vivid and informative photographs and pieces to camera in TV programmes always engage me and fostered a desire to explore beyond my limited travel horizons.Having said that I really enjoyed the book and when I started it was difficult to put down, the urge to just read another chapter was always there and as each chapter was a days journey it felt even more like a diary and you felt you were progressing down Iraq along with the small team making the films. I am grateful for the many journeys we have shared but mostly the change of attitude he has given me in my own trips.

Reading this book and watching the accompanying TV series has stirred lovely memories of watching 80 Days Around The World, Full Circle, and other Palin TV series that I loved as a child.The book is beautifully illustrated and written in Palin’s easy to read diary format which he has honed over decades of doing such series for television although now they are for ITN and Channel 5 here in the UK rather than the earlier, and higher budget, trips for the BBC.