India(ish)

It starts with an ill-fated attempt to walk across India in flip-flops. (Spoiler: That lasts two days.)

Then it's buttock-bruising buses and chock-a-block trains for a farcical journey around the country, across the Punjab and Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, through Maharashtra and Karnataka and Tamil Nadu; to super-cities like Delhi and Mumbai and Kolkata, and sacred spots like Amritsar and Varanasi and Rishikesh, and lesser-visited locations like Madurai and Madikeri and McLeod Ganj.

Along the way, Mark sees the awful and the absurd and the awesome, encounters the horrors and riches of India, a country of extreme contrasts that he struggles to survive, strives to like. He has to laugh -- it was either that or cry.

He meets randy perverts and mystical madmen, sees bodies barbecued beside the Ganges, goes insane when he drinks bhang lassi, wears skinny jeans to a yoga class, and visits the cult of "The Mother".

For a country like no other, it's a travel book like no other.

(*Disclaimer*: If you like yoga or knitting or The Guardian, or are the sort of person that orders a korma, this book isn't for you. You'll hate it. If you donate to Children In Need or feed ducks at the park, don't buy it.)