North Korea Journal

<p><u><b>THE BOOK BEHIND THE HIT DOCUMENTARY</b><br></u><br><b>A glimpse of life inside the world&#146;s most secretive country as told by Britain&#146;s best-loved travel writer.</b><br><br>In May 2018 former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People&#146;s Republic of Korea a cut-off land without internet or phone signal where the countryside has barely moved beyond a centuries-old peasant economy but where the cities have gleaming skyscrapers and luxurious underground train stations. His resulting documentary for Channel 5 was widely acclaimed.<br><br>Now he shares his day-by-day diary of his visit in which he describes not only what he saw &#150; and his fleeting views of what the authorities didn&#146;t want him to see &#150; but recounts the conversations he had with the country&#146;s inhabitants talks candidly about his encounters with officialdom and records his musings about a land wholly unlike any other he has ever visited &#150; one that inspires fascination and fear in equal measure.<br><br>Written with Palin&#146;s trademark warmth and wit and illustrated with beautiful colour photographs throughout the journal offers a rare insight into the North Korea behind the headlines.</p>