Book Review: Full Circle
I do love travel writing. I think I have found my favourite sub-genre in the world of nonfiction. It also helps that this time around, ‘Full Circle’, is one man’s diary of travelling the Pacific rim, written by one of the founding members of Monty Python, which means it’s beautifully written and deeply funny in most parts, whether by accident or design. It doesn’t matter. This is going down as one of my favourite travel reads I’ve read in a while.
This book was written to accompany a documentary-style travel series following Palin around the Pacific rim. The series takes place over the course of 245 days, covering over 80,000 miles in 1995 and 1996. It is a beautiful look at theworld of over 30 years ago, and much of the world has changed since then. So reading the world as Michael Palin saw it, especially China, was illuminating. The book also has photographs accompanying it. I wonder how much of the landscapes have now changed since filming began. I know in Asia, the landscape would have changed a lot. China has undergone massive expansion and economic growth, so towns, cities, style, and architecture have all radically changed to the point that if Palin were to do this television show again… it would look very different. I also know I’m reading about ways of life in Japan, Indonesia, Australia and South America that are slowly dying out, or perhaps they have already, which is quietly humbling. Documented records of life, culture, experiences and ideas are slowly changing with the ever-changing and evolving technology, written diaries like Palin’s are becoming more unusual since TikTok has become a thing and ‘vlogging’ is more the norm.
Here is what I loved about this book: I haven’t seen the TV show, and now I don’t think I need to. Palin’s writing is so brilliantly evocative of the places, sights and smells of the places he is visiting. His voice is particularly mature, funny, and crucially, readable. You don’t have to have a degree from Oxbridge to be engaged in Palin’s writing. I think it was obvious that he initially wrote the diary for himself and not for the sake of writing for other people. It is at times deeply personal when he speaks of his family, the performative nature of his writing is not so much to entertain an audience, that is a happy byproduct of writing for oneself, but as a log of a life well lived. Sure, it helped that he got paid to do this by the BBC (who wouldn’t want a fully paid, all expenses trip around the world?) I want to be Palin and have the opportunities to travel all over the world; it is the adventure of a lifetime, most people will not have the opportunity to experience, and therefore, we must all live vicariously through Palin.
I really loved this book and can’t wait to read others by him. I’ve just bought myself ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ by Jules Verne. I may also get Palin’s copy of it, as he did another docuseries following Verne’s journey. Watch this space.