This book, like the other books that Michael Palin wrote following each of his seven trips for the BBC, consists both of his text and of many photographs to illustrate the trip. All of the pictures in this book were taken by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was part of the team who did the trip.
The book contains 21 chapters: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kaliningrad/Russia, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Germany. The book is presented in a diary format; Palin starts each section of the book with a heading such as "Day Forty One: Selçuk". Not all days are mentioned, in part a result of the trip as a whole being broken up into several shorter trips.
Recurring themes in the book include the question of how the citizens of these countries compare the current situation with the Communist years and the expectations these people have of the future and the enlarged European Union.
Palin occasionally commits glaring errors in the book. Most strikingly, he refers to the Estonian language as being made up of thousands of "characters", when it is in fact written in the Latin script.
This book is available as an audiobook, read by Michael Palin. There are two versions available. The abridged version lasts 7 hours, 30 minutes and the unabridged version 11 hours, 32 minutes.
Monty Python were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus, which aired on the BBC from 1969 to 1974. Their work then developed into a larger collection that included live shows, films, albums, books, and musicals; their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music. Their sketch show has been called "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy".
Sir Michael Edward Palin is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.
Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a wager of £20,000 set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by English writer Jerome K. Jerome of a two-week boating holiday on the Thames from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford and back to Kingston. The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history along the route, but the humorous elements took over to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to the comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers – the jokes have been praised as fresh and witty.
Basil Pao Ho-Yun (鲍皓昕) is a Hong Kong-based photographer. He has been the stills photographer on the BBC filming teams that made Michael Palin's television travel programmes.
Himalaya with Michael Palin is a 2004 BBC television series presented by comedian and travel presenter Michael Palin. It records his six-month trip around the Himalaya mountain range area. The trip covered only 4,800 km horizontally, but involved a lot of vertical travelling, including several treks into the mountains. The highest point attained by Palin was Everest Base Camp at 5,300 metres.
Sahara with Michael Palin is a four-part BBC television series presented by British comedian and travel presenter Michael Palin, and first broadcast in 2002. In it, Palin travelled around the Sahara in Northern and Western Africa, meeting people and visiting places. The journey route included the following countries and territories: Gibraltar, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Ceuta, Spain.
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure is a 1999 BBC television documentary presented by Michael Palin. It records Palin's travels as he visited many sites where Ernest Hemingway had been. The sites include Spain, Chicago, Paris, Italy, Africa, Key West, Cuba, and Idaho.
Full Circle with Michael Palin is a 10-part 1997 documentary television series, first broadcast on BBC One in 1997. Presented by Michael Palin, Full Circle was the third of a series of programmes in which Palin made and documented lengthy journeys. The first was Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, a 7-part series first broadcast in 1989, and the second was Pole to Pole with Michael Palin, an 8-part series first broadcast in 1992.
Pole to Pole with Michael Palin is an eight-part television documentary travel series made for the BBC, and first broadcast on BBC1 in 1992. The presenter is Michael Palin, this being the second of Palin's major journeys for the BBC. The first was Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin, a 7-part series first broadcast on BBC One in 1989, and the third was Full Circle with Michael Palin, a 10-part series first broadcast on BBC One in 1997.
Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin is a 7-part BBC television travel series first broadcast on BBC1 in 1989. It was presented by comedian and actor Michael Palin. The show was inspired by Jules Verne's classic 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days, in which a character named Phileas Fogg accepts a wager to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days or less.
Himalaya is the book that Michael Palin wrote to accompany the BBC television documentary series Himalaya with Michael Palin.
Pole to Pole is a book written by Michael Palin to accompany his BBC television series Pole to Pole.
Full Circle is a travel book by writer and television presenter Michael Palin. Full Circle is a written accompaniment for Palin's 1997 BBC travel documentary Full Circle with Michael Palin. The book recounts the journey of Palin and the BBC film crew to countries and regions around the rim of the Pacific Ocean in 1996 and 1997. Full Circle consists of text by Palin and photographs by Basil Pao, who accompanied the crew on the trip. Basil Pao also produced a book, Full Circle - The Photographs, containing many more of his pictures.
Around the World in 80 Days is the 1989 book that Michael Palin wrote to accompany the BBC TV program Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin.
Sahara is the book that Michael Palin wrote to accompany the BBC television documentary series Sahara with Michael Palin.
Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure is the book that Michael Palin wrote to accompany the BBC TV program Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure.
Michael Palin's New Europe is a travel documentary presented by Michael Palin and first aired in the UK on the BBC on 16 September 2007 and in the US on the Travel Channel on 28 January 2008. Palin visits 20 countries in Central and Eastern Europe – the programme was filmed in the wake of the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, which included many of the countries visited by Palin and significantly reshaped east–west relations on the continent. The filming was done in 2006 and early 2007 using HD equipment. The result was made into seven one-hour programmes for BBC One and simulcast on BBC HD. A book, New Europe, was also written describing the trip, and illustrated with photographs by Basil Pao.
Monty Python's Flying Circus is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known collectively as "Monty Python", or the "Pythons". The first episode was recorded at the BBC on 7 September 1969 and premiered on 5 October on BBC1, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV. A feature film adaptation of several sketches, And Now for Something Completely Different, was released in 1971.
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