An Idiot Abroad: the Travel Diaries of Karl Pilkington - Karl Pilkington

Travel Writing - Does it Broaden the Mind? I find travel writing irresistible. The best travel books inspire me and the worst give me plenty of material for writing damning reviews about just how awful they are. I seldom are left unmoved - whether positively or negatively - by travel writing. I expected to not like 'An Idiot Abroad’ and indeed for the first few chapters I was baffled about why anyone would bother sending someone who'd rather spend a fortnight in a caravan park on a trip to see the world's great wonders but having finished it, I’m still not sure. It surprised me in ways I ... more

As seems to be a bit of a habit with Sky TV programs the promotion for An Idiot Abroad seems to have been just about everywhere. With the TV series showing on sky and the release of the accompanying book by Karl Pilkington detailing his travel diaries from the trip it seems to have gathered a rather large following. I’d heard of Karl from his work on XFM and even though I had yet to see the series I jumped at the chance to read the accompanying book to see if it would be any good. I’d heard a number of positives about the series as a whole and wondered if the books would live up to this ... more

As a great fan of the 'Idiot Abroad' tv series, I was looking forward to reading the book. It didn't disappoint, far from it, but left a little something to be desired. The book is comprised of the various musings of everyone's favourite moron Karl Pilkington, photos taken of him in various locations, and transcripted conversations between him and the giggling Merchant/Gervais duo back in Blighty. The book contains some material that didn't feature on the show whatsoever, but it is mostly just Karl's version of the trips' events. Some of the material is repeated as well: those with a decent ... more