Full Circle - Michael Palin

infobox Book |
name = Full Circle
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Hardcover first edition, 1997, BBC Books
author = Michael Palin
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = [http://www.palinstravels.co.uk/ Michael Palin's Trips]
genre = Travel literature
publisher = BBC Books
release_date = 1997
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 320
isbn = 0-563-37121-8
preceded_by = Pole to Pole
followed_by = Hemingway Adventure

"Full Circle" is the book that Michael Palin wrote to accompany the BBC TV program "Full Circle with Michael Palin".

This book, like the other books that Michael Palin wrote following each of his seven trips for the BBC, consists both of his text and of many photographs to illustrate the trip. All of the pictures in this book were taken by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was part of the team who did the trip.

(Basil Pao also produced a book, "Full Circle - The Photographs", containing many more of his pictures.)

The book contains one chapter for each country/region visited, as follows: USA (Alaska), Russia (Siberia), Japan, South Korea, China (Shanghai to Vietnam), Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, USA (California), Canada (British Columbia), USA (Alaska).

To some extent the book reads like a diary, as Michael Palin starts each section of the book with a heading like "Day 43 - Huis Ten Bosch". But in a departure from the previous two books there are occasional breaks where a day is not mentioned.

This was the longest of all of Michael Palin's trips, covering 50,000 miles (80,000 km) through 17 countries in ten months.

The diversity of the many countries and places is amazing. Arctic wilderness, tropics, deserts, cramped cities, huge rivers, high mountains, etc., etc. There are many high points along the way, the most exciting being when Michael Palin had to lasso a camel while standing in the back of a pickup truck that was going over bumps and around bends at break-neck speed.

The text of this book is available free to read online on [http://www.palinstravels.co.uk/static-11 Michael Palin's official web site] .

Audio edition

This book was made available as an audio book, read by Michael Palin himself, allowing the listener to hear his wit and charm, and his ability to do accents. The audio book does not include the photographs, of course. Two versions of the audio book exist, an abridged version that lasts 6 hours and an unabridged version (difficult to find) that lasts 11 hours 53 minutes.