Pole to Pole

Pole to Pole is Michael Palin’s account of his epic journey from the Arctic to Antarctic, via the USSR, Africa and South America: a classic adventure in a beautiful Folio Society edition, with superb original photography. Pole to Pole is Michael Palin’s legendary account account of an extraordinary journey from the North to the South Pole. His challenge was to follow the 30°E longitude line by land and sea, taking to the air only as a last resort. In the gruelling six-month trek, Palin covered 23,000 miles across 17 countries, including Norway, Russia and Ukraine (at the time, both part of the USSR), Turkey, Egypt, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Chile. Opening with a new introduction by the author, in which he recalls his childhood dreams of far-off lands and legendary adventurers, this lavish Folio edition includes 24 pages of colour photography – a rich compendium of landscapes, nations and people, bookended by shots of Palin standing alone at each extremity of the earth. The newly redrawn maps are the work of illustrator Sara Mulvanny, whose whimsical cover design shows every mode of transport used in the trip. Frank, perceptive and very funny, Pole to Pole is an epic journey with the most engaging of travel companions. For much of the journey from the Arctic to Antarctic, by ship, train, truck, skidoo, balloon and bicycle, Palin was accompanied by friend and travel photographer Basil Pao. His camera provided many of the wonderful pictures in this Folio edition: the faded grandeur of Leningrad, passengers riding on the roof of a Sudanese train, and a witch doctor in Tanzania, among many other striking images. They capture the spirit of Palin’s honest, blisters-and-all travelogue, culled from diaries and tape recordings produced on the road. He is at his best on the trip’s perils and misfortunes, from avoiding trigger-happy riot police in Ethiopia to breaking a rib during an ill-advised dip in the Zambezi. His eye for the absurd is undimmed since Monty Python – as when he presents a gift from Watford to its Soviet twin town of Novgorod, or experiences cream teas, cricket and brass bands in scorching heat at a British outpost in Cyprus. Palin’s sense of fun is infectious, but the comedy is never overbearing: Pole to Pole belongs in the great tradition of adventure writing.