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|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=272
|publisher=W&N
|website=http://palinstravels.co.uk
|video=o87gr42EMRM
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297860216075382812X</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>0297860216</amazonus>
}}
Mabbutt is a lovely creation. You probably know a dozen men in their fifties who are just like him. They've lost their fire - and their sense of direction. But Mabbutt does still have that spark of what he once was - and a basic honesty. He might be able to sidestep the comparisons between writing a history of Sullom Voe Oil Terminal (which fails to address the oil slicks which have caused damage) and his antagonism to an industrial plant in India but he has loyalty. Melville is a shadowy figure - by design - but he's never less than three dimensional. The female characters are perhaps less fully formed but that's a minor quibble.
I have to confess though that the star of the book for me was India, from her busy cities to thr the remote rural areas. I never for a moment felt that I was reading a travel book but there's a real skill in making a location feel real and vivid and Palin has it in spades. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.
For another exposure of the inequalities in modern India we can recommend [[The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga]]. We weren't very impressed by [[The Temple-Goers by Aatish Taseer]], but it was listed for the Costa Prize in 2010 so it might be that it was just not the book for us.
{{amazontext|amazon=0297860216}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=7021887075382812X}}
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