Countries visited: Russia, United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Canada

Full Circles sees Michael Palin, in his third travelogue, undertake his most ambitious journey yet. Having crossed the vertical and horizontal expanses of the world, Palin undertakes a more circular journey this time through the countries that border the Pacific Ocean. Once again, the journey was the literary accompaniment to the BBC television series of the same name also released in 1997.

Full Circle would end up being Palin’s longest ever journey with 80,000km covered across 17 countries over a period of 10 months. Palin follows an anticlockwise direction, starting and ending in the Bering Strait. Due to the transcontinental nature of this trip, Palin has to rely on several modes of travel in order to get between locations breaking with land-travel-at-costs approach of his previous two journeys.

As with his previous travelogues, Palin once again utilises a travel diary style of writing to retell his epic journey. Each chapter within the book represents a day within the overall 245-day journey. Full Circle is filled with interesting facts about the varied locations that are visited with Palin’s signature wit keeping the mood of the book fun and at no point boring across its 317 pages.

Full Circle also features several colour photographs by Palin’s longtime collaborator Basil Pao. The photos perfectly capture the variety of diverse cultures which Palin comes across on his journey and are a great accompaniment to his story.

Full Circle’s epic scope sets it apart from the rest of Palin’s previous and upcoming journeys around and across the globe. The distance covered this time is impressive, covering four out of the world’s seven continents across the length of his 10-month journey. The juxtaposition of cultures is book’s greatest strength, transporting readers, as they turn each page, across vast distances within a matter of chapters.