In pursuit of the exotic - sometimes the chaotic - travel writer John Borthwick wanders the globe for a living. In this collection of funny, insightful traveller's tales, John crosses paths, rather belatedly, with Paul Gauguin, Freddie Mercury, Madonna, and Wild Bill Hickock, among others Rails, sails and jeepneys propel readers through off-the-wall journeys - cruising the Upper Amazon, cycling the back-roads of Guangdong, rattling across the Namibian desert with a trainload of squabbling eccentrics, and many more.