The kingdom by the sea

Paul Theroux's round-Britain travelogue is funny, perceptive and, said the Sunday Times, 'best avoided by patriots with high blood pressure . . . 'After eleven years living as an American in London, Paul Theroux set out to travel clockwise round the coast and find out what Britain and the British are really like. It was 1982, the summer of the Falklands War and the royal baby, and the ideal time, he found, to surprise the British into talking about themselves. The result is absolutely riveting reading. 'Few of us have seen the entirety of the coast and I for one am grateful to Mr Theroux for making my journey unnecessary. He describes it all brilliantly and honestly' - Anthony Burgess in the Observer. 'Filled with history, insights, landscape, epiphanies, meditations, celebrations and laments' - The New York Times.