Hold The Enlightenment
By Tim Cahill

     There does not seem to be any extreme situation Tim Cahill hasn't been in during his intrepid and downright dangerous journeys. His work is a dictionary definition of what is meant by "extreme travel writing" but this is no gritty Hemingway stuff - instead prepare for plenty of laugh-out-loud humour. In his admirably short tales, discover how Cahill went in search of the extinct Caspian tiger, traversed what is possibly the most dangerous place in the world and was dangled in a flimsy cage amongst great white sharks. On a more serious note, Cahill discovers yoga in the title tale, muses on the tremendous changes in Bali over the past few years and contemplates his own mortality in the face of injury. There are some lyrical descriptions of exotic places such as the Saharan salt mines and the difficulty in finding them, the Mexican village that is famous for pots and the strange tale of Butch Cassidy's career in Argentina. However, it is the humour that makes this book memorable, such as the true nature of the dolphin, the bizarre tale of "speaking English" in Mali and exotic friends like Atlatl(name of a person?) Bob Perkins and Robert Young Pelton. Cahill shows himself as being at home in today's global village and is enviably adept at finding humour and a sense of the exotic and absurd in the hairiest situation.

     This is the sort of book to keep on a table in the house (maybe even a coffee table) for you and guests to dip into at odd moments. Dentists' waiting rooms ought to have a copy…entertaining, thought provoking and very topical.