Palin on the new Europe

While there doesn't seem to be any date for the airing of his new TV series yet, I note that Amazon has a release date for its accompanying book, so it's looking like the new Michael Palin project will shortly be unveiled by the BBC - and it's almost certainly going to be one of the major highlights of the year. The series will be titled 'New Europe', and will follow Palin around a part of the world which remains unfamiliar to the majority of us; the countries in the old Soviet Bloc, Yugoslavia and other nations like Turkey, which are either new or aspirant members of the European Union. As Palin writes on his website, 'these are not countries miles away; they're close to home and there is much more history and culture and politics to understand'. We can presumably expect Palin to be as genial and insightful a guide as usual.

Anyway, if you can't wait for the series, then the book - illustrated, as usual, with remarkable photographs by Basil Pao - will be published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson on Thursday 13th September. For a better insight into what the book covers, as well as an absolutely priceless host of links to articles and resources on the countries covered, you could do a lot worse than trawl through Michael Palin's New Europe: An Unofficial Fan Center , which is a blog written and maintained by a Slovenian Palin fan. It's well worth a read.

Can't wait for the series.