The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the world's most unlikely holiday destinations

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the world's most unlikely holiday destinations
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Dom Joly
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:288
Dimensions(mm): Height 126,Width 196
Category/GenreMemoirs
Humour
Adventure holidays
Travel writing
ISBN/Barcode 9781472146069
ClassificationsDewey:910.4092
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Imprint Robinson
Publication Date 2 September 2021
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Ever since he can remember, Dom Joly has been fascinated by travel to odd places. In part this stems from a childhood spent in war-torn Lebanon, where instead of swapping marbles in the schoolyard, he had a shrapnel collection -- the schoolboy currency of Beirut. Dom's upbringing was interspersed with terrifying days and nights spent hunkered in the family basement under Syrian rocket attack or coming across a pile of severed heads from a sectarian execution in the pine forests near his home. These early experiences left Dom with a profound loathing for the sanitized experiences of the modern day travel industry and a taste for the darkest of places. In this brilliantly odd and hilariously told travel memoir, Dom Joly sets out on a quest to visit those destinations from which the average tourist would, and should, run a mile. The more insalubrious the place, the more interesting is the journey and so we follow Dom as he skis in Iran on segregated slopes, spends a weekend in Chernobyl, tours the assassination sites of America and becomes one of the few Westerners to be granted entry into North Korea. Eventually Dom journeys back to his roots in Beirut only to discover he was at school with Osama Bin Laden. Funny and frightening in equal measure, this is a uniquely bizarre and compelling travelogue from one of the most fearless and innovative comedians around.

Author Biography

Dom Joly is a multi-award-winning television comedian, has been a columnist for the Independent, I and Metro, and is also an award-winning travel writer for the Sunday Times and the Mail On Sunday. He lives in the Cotswolds with his wife and two kids.

Reviews

Destinations that would make a travel agent go pale -- Sunday Times . . . brilliantly funny, irreverent writing with non-sickly compassion for those who live under the most oppressive regimes... a very human travelogue -- Country Life Readability in spades -- Scotsman Intoxicating and hilarious. Like all the best travel writing, it makes you long to be in the seat next to him -- John Niven