Footloose for half a lifetime.(Book Review)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 30-NOV-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

THE TRAVELS OF IBN BATTUTAH edited by Tim Mackintosh-Smith Picador, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 325, ISBN 033049113X

Walk into an airport bookstore and chances are the shelves will be groaning with travelogues by Bill Bryson, master-pieces of conversational banality one and all. Anecdotal evidence from my most recent experience of Luton airport (always a joy) suggests he has cranked out seven or so over the years, and they still sell phenomenally. No one ever lost money under-estimating the crassness of the British public, as they say.

Try to locate a copy of Ibn Battutah, however, the 14th-century Traveller of Islam, who is to Bill Bryson as the Australian Test cricket side is to Little Walsingham Colts XI, and more likely than not you will...

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