Michael Palin

Actor Michael Palin follows the steps of Phineas Fogg to achieve the journey of Around the World in 80 Days for TV.

Brazil is one of the four new global superpowers with its vast natural resources and burgeoning industries. Half a continent in size and a potent mix of races, religions and cultures, of unexplored wildernesses and bustling modern cities, it is also one of the few countries Michael Palin has never fully travelled - until now.

In September 2014 the wreck of a sailing vessel was discovered at the bottom of the sea in the Canadian Arctic. Its whereabouts had been a mystery for over a century. Its name was HMS Erebus. Here, Michael Palin travels to various locations across the world – Tasmania, the Falklands, the Canadian Arctic – to search for local information, and to experience at first hand the terrain and the conditions that would have confronted the Erebus and her crew.

The intrepid traveller journeys from Alaska to Russia, Japan and eventually through South America and back to Alaska as he circles the Pacific Rim.

Some years ago a stash of family records was handed down to Michael Palin, among which were photos of an enigmatic young man in army uniform, as well as photos of the same young man as a teenager looking uncomfortable at family gatherings. This, Michael learnt, was his Great-Uncle Harry, born in 1884, died in 1916. He had previously had no idea that he had a Great-Uncle Harry, much less that his life was cut short at the age of 32 when he was killed in the Battle of the Somme. The discovery both shocked him and made him want to know much more about him.

The quest that followed involved hundreds of hours of painstaking detective work. Michael dug out every bit of family gossip and correspondence he could. He studied every relevant official document. He tracked down what remained of his great-uncle Harry's diaries and letters, and pored over photographs of First World War battle scenes to see whether Harry appeared in any of them. He walked the route Harry took on that fatal, final day of his life amid the mud of northern France. And as he did so, a life that had previously existed in the shadows was revealed to him.

Great-Uncle Harry is an utterly compelling account of an ordinary man who led an extraordinary life. A blend of biography, history, travelogue and personal memoir this is Michael Palin at his very finest.

When an Assistant Postmaster finds his Post Office under threat of privatisation, should he fight for his beliefs like his hero, Ernest Hemingway?

In his most challenging journey, Michael Palin explores many countries of the Himalaya region which are little known to the West. This record of his journey contains the customary catalogue of disasters, misunderstandings and colourful characters encountered on the way.

In March 2022, Michael Palin travelled the length of the River Tigris through Iraq to get a sense of what life is like in a region of the world that once formed the cradle of civilisation, but that in recent times has witnessed turmoil and appalling bloodshed. It was a journey of sharp, often brutal contrasts. At one moment he would be exploring the old streets of Baghdad or the ancient ruins of Babylon. At the next he would be visiting the war-torn city of Mosul, or learning about the horrific Speicher massacre in Tikrit. Now he shares the journal he meticulously kept during his trip, in which he describes the very varied places he visited, the people he met and the impressions he formed of a country that few outsiders now venture to see.

Illustrated throughout with colour photographs taken on the trip, and permeated with his warmth and humour, this is a vivid and varied portrait of a complex country.

Michael Palin has kept a diary since he got married in the late 1960s, when he was beginning to make a name for himself as a TV scriptwriter. But Monty Python was just around the corner. In this volume he tells for the first time how Python emerged and triumphed.

In 2018, Michael Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, where the countryside has barely moved beyond a centuries-old peasant economy but where the cities have gleaming skyscrapers and luxurious underground train stations. He shares his day-by-day diary of his visit offering a rare insight into the North Korea behind the headlines.