Adventures of a Compulsive Traveller

by Dominic Dunne

Journalist Dominic Dunne’s travels have rarely been ordinary, despite his best intentions. He has been travelling all his life, from the time his parents started their annual pilgrimage to the opal fields of Lightning Ridge. Since then he has trekked all over Australia and to some 60 countries, spending his life trying to satisfy his insatiable appetite for travelling, an addiction that has taken him to wonderful and sometimes dangerous places where he has met all manner of people. In this book Dominic uses insight and wit – and a good dollop of gossip – to capture the highlights (and lowlights) from destinations the world over. Dominic takes readers backstage with Nana Mouskouri in Greece and in search of the ghosts of Elvis Presley in Mississippi. He escapes marauding Americans at Noel Coward’s Jamaican sanctuary, crosses cranky guards in North Korea, rubs shoulders with Hillary Clinton in Washington and solves a life-long mystery in Zimbabwe. And he meets his namesake, the best-selling American author Dominick Dunne, with whom he forges an enduring friendship.

317 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Michael O'Donnell]

Bad Read. Name dropping. Disjointed stories. Self indulgent.

Enough world view and quirk to keep you reading to the end. That and a dogged determination.

The dust cover said 'Someone confiscate his passport'. I say 'Someone confiscate his pen'.

[Martin Simon]

One of the best travel memoirs I have read. Smart, funny, fast-paced and entertaining. A wild ride around the world. The way I think travel books should be. I loved it and highly recommend it.

[Adam]

Outrageous! This book is quirky and irreverent and yet gentle and endearing. So many sensational stories. I love the way Dominic Dunne travels the world constantly and manages to have so many bizarre and hysterical experiences. What's more, he knows how to write about them so that the reader is constantly enthralled. A very Aussie way of looking at the world. I enjoyed reading his thoughts on Americans and the typical American tourist. Also liked his chapter on the late, great American writer Dominick Dunne, who was a friend of the author.

[Simon]

Lovely. Really enjoyed reading it. They say that variety is the spice of life, and this book has variety in spades. A collection of travel essays that made me want and get out there and experience places!! The world is full of strange people, and I particularly liked the fact that the author embraces people. He clearly is a people person, and travelling is all about the people we meet. I envy people who have such an insatiable curiosity and can write so well! I liked it a lot.

[Annamac]

Loved this - one of the best travel books I've read. Very funny, very moving, and joyously silly sometimes. Loved the Nana Mouskouri stories!

[Lara]

This is a book for travellers and those who are interested in stories about places.

It has an interesting format that I'd describe as a bit like reading postcards from friends who are travelling. The chapters are short and stand-alone. (Perfect for reading in short breaks.) Some chapters are detailed descriptions of something - like visiting the home of Noel Coward in Jamaica - and finish with a seemingly random and disconnected paragraph about a conversation with someone he meets on the bus about the band Air Supply which almost acts like a post script.

The main part of the chapter provides interesting history about the place (and in this case the life of Noel Coward), observations of the people he meets (how nobody seems to have heard of the playwright) and what it was like to visit Jamaica.

The other way these are like a postcard is that Dominic shares snippets of his life and his feelings about how people treat each other that are very honest. His comments are the sorts of things you would say to your friends, not strangers. Through this, we learn he has lived an extraordinary life and met some interesting people. He seems like the sort of person you'd love to have at a dinner party.

On top of this, I have learned some very interesting things about the world and the people in it.

[Lilyfern]

Short stories, all very much the same. Yes, they take place in India. But really the main theme througout the book seemed to be how travelling in India is a good enough reason for infidelity and that having sex with strangers to get ahead economically (not outright prostitution) is (supposedly) commonplace. Very quick read and I confess I was glad when it was over.

[Shahiron Sahari]

Be warned: this is not by the acclaimed American writer but an obscure australian journalist with the same name. My mistake I guess for thinking it was by the former. the giveaway was the way he obscures his face on the cover. The collection of travel pieces was not bad as travel postcards go but the stories are just very slight and really adds nothing to your life or understanding of it.

[Debbie]

Enjoyed it. Highly entertaining.