There and Back

Reviews / Votes

True, this evolving series is the ultimate comfort read, but it's also much more than that: a social history of Britain spanning four decades, told with unflagging empathy and wit -- Jonathan Coe * Observer * Michael Palin knows what makes a good diary . . . it's his attention to the mundane, above all, that makes his diaries so enjoyable to read * Daily Telegraph * The dynamic [between the Pythons] remains eternally fascinating: there's a permanent tension and endless bickering, but also a huge, unshakeable love . . . [Palin is] less of a national treasure and more of a sacred monument * Waitrose Magazine * A friend's foolishness, his own fears, the minutiae of preparing for an overseas expedition, Palin writes it all down, so we know what happened and so he does as well . . . Perhaps that's why diaries are such an engaging literary form. Like our own lives they veer between the everyday and the profound * Radio Times * In the fourth volume of diaries from the Monty Python alumnus, we get to hang out with this thoughtful, amusing, affectionate, intellectually curious man over a decade . . . This is full of friends (numerous, often famous), funerals and fun * Saga Magazine *