Michael Palin Diaries (There and Back: 1999-2009) Review

I didn’t expect to laugh aloud while reading Michael Palin’s 1999-2009 diaries, There and Back. I expected to learn more about the life of one of my favourite authors behind the scenes. 

As it turned out, I achieved both. 

I laughed hysterically at the thought of a furious driver dishing out “masturbatory” gestures to none other than Sir Michael Palin on a crowded London street. 

I also learned about some poignant events in Mr Palin’s career that I didn’t know about, such as the death of his sister by suicide and his warm relationship with David Attenborough. 

I found myself reaching for my phone to check the Wikipedia pages of many of the people Mr Palin has met over the years. He is extraordinarily well-connected and shares his experiences of lunching with many characters in his diaries. 

While I’m not a Monty Python fan, I found the dynamic between the author, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, and Eric Idle, particularly fascinating. Graham Chapman doesn’t feature much, given his untimely death in 1989. 

The relationship between John Cleese and Michael Palin is, at times, touching and, at others, bemusing. Cleese comes across as an enigmatic figure who loves life’s luxuries. I loved him as Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers and was fascinated to learn of many anecdotes presented by Mr. Palin of life with John away from the screen. 

In There and Back, Mr Palin invites us to be a fly on the wall of various meetings he’s had over the years, including encounters with Tony Blair, Ed Balls, and Gordon Brown, which might interest you if you’re politically engaged. 

But for me, the beauty of this diary lies in the everyday encounters and how Mr Palin writes about his family. His relationship with his wife, Helen, seems to anchor his very existence, giving him the strength, confidence, and support to travel the world and participate in his various artistic projects. 

I also adored the way Mr Palin writes about the arrival of Archie, his first grandson. He also regularly writes with pride about his children, who flew the nest just before these diary entries began. 

Sir Michael is one of my favourite authors, and I have read practically all his published work (excluding the other diary editions). I was particularly keen to read There and Back as I expected it to provide context to Sahara, my favourite of his travel diaries. 

I wasn’t disappointed. There’s much information about planning such a travel series, and credit is given to those who joined the author across the desert. 

Ultimately, There and Back isn’t my favourite of Sir Michael’s books, but it provided context and background to the life of an author who has inspired me for many years. 

I’m proud to have a signed copy of this book, and I will treasure it. I highly recommend reading it if you would like to know more about Mr Palin, the man, rather than the public figure.

Reading Michael Palin's diaries over the weekend with a bottle of Tusker; my favourite of East Africa's beers. I'm sure the author would approve, given his penchant for cold ones!