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Michael Palin in Venezuela
In February 2025, Michael Palin travelled to Venezuela to get a sense of what life is like in one of South America's most culturally rich, vibrant but also troubled nations. In the journal he kept during his trip he gives a vivid account of the towns and cities he visited, the landscapes he travelled through, and the people he met.
Illustrated throughout with colour photographs taken on the trip, and permeated with his warmth and humour, this is a vivid and varied portrait of a complex country.
Illustrated throughout with colour photographs taken on the trip, and permeated with his warmth and humour, this is a vivid and varied portrait of a complex country.
- GenresNonfictionTravel
192 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2025
16 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Michael Palin
136 books1,190 followersSir Michael Edward Palin, KCMG, CBE, FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries.
Palin wrote most of his material with Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "The Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition" and "Spam". Palin continued to work with Jones, co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer. His journeys have taken him across the world, the North and South Poles, the Sahara desert, the Himalayas and most recently, Eastern Europe. In 2000 Palin became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television.
Palin wrote most of his material with Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "The Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition" and "Spam". Palin continued to work with Jones, co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer. His journeys have taken him across the world, the North and South Poles, the Sahara desert, the Himalayas and most recently, Eastern Europe. In 2000 Palin became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 28, 2025
Best read as a light accompaniment to the TV Series, this is perfect for a quick, comforting read on a Sunday afternoon. Journal entries that cover the 20 days Palin spent filming around Venezuela, the 100th country he has visited. It's light and breezy and lacks some depth, I was left wishing there had been more, but at the same time, happy that Palin is still going strong in his 80s and still giving us programmes and books that entertain and inform.
November 6, 2025
A lovely, simple read. Bought as a mid-term treat, you can never really have enough of Michael Palin’s travel journals.
October 9, 2025
I love a Michael Palin travel book. First time listening to it in audiobook; could have done without the Venezuelan accents but you can’t have everything in this life.
October 13, 2025
I have read (or listened to) and loved all of Michael Palin's wonderful travel adventures and this most recent one (at 81 years of age!) didn't disappoint.
Again, Michael makes the place and the people come alive and, although I have no special interest in Venezuela, again I was captivated. His commentary is honest and open and I love that he accepts everything for what it is and treats all people equally. He is, without doubt, one of my very favourite people and I feel sure he is just the way we see him in these programs . . . I'd be very disappointed if he wasn't! If only some of our world leaders had a mind and attitude like Michael's! *****
Again, Michael makes the place and the people come alive and, although I have no special interest in Venezuela, again I was captivated. His commentary is honest and open and I love that he accepts everything for what it is and treats all people equally. He is, without doubt, one of my very favourite people and I feel sure he is just the way we see him in these programs . . . I'd be very disappointed if he wasn't! If only some of our world leaders had a mind and attitude like Michael's! *****
December 10, 2025
I picked this off a shelf in Waterstones because Venezuela was in the news as Trump's latest target so I figured a bit of self-education on the place might be sensible.
My experience of fiction books is that there is a very long lead in time, so I was surprised to see how quickly this book had made it into print in a matter of months, Palin and co having only completed their 21 day visit in February of 2025.
Having first known of Michael Palin as a comic star of Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Life of Brian, Ripping Yarns and A Fish Called Wanda, I was aware of his second career as a travel program maker and writer. However, I hadn't developed that awareness into reading or watching his travel products until now.
Serendipitously I came to his travel career as he was about to visit his one hundredth country at the surprising age of 82. In my head Michael Palin is perennially young (as indeed am I - we have both just been young for a very long time).
This is a shortish book consumed in a few spells of reading spread over a 24 hour period. The text is illustrated with lush photographs of scenery - include Palin standing on slippery rocks behind the wall of water that comprise one of Venezuela's remarkable waterfalls.
Besides the scenery and the people, Palin also gives is some insights into Venezuela's political situation with President Maduro clearly a deeply despised and compromised long standing dictator, who is holding into power after losing an election by the simple expedient of declaring himself a winner. I'm surprised Trump has such contempt for the man since that is exactly the kind of "Art of the Deal" manoeuvre that the grifting Agent Krasnov would not only admire, but love to pull himself.
Palin and his team had some difficult experiences with paranoid security forces eager to protect the name and status of their cult leader. As we see people (and bots) on social media in the UK fawning over the most undeserving and frankly treasonous idols, it is salutary to realise how fragile western democracy always has been. It is like a boulder delicately balanced on a knife edge and it doesn't take too much foreign billionaire money to push it off the assumed equilibrium and topple it into an abyss of dictatorship.
But anyway, Palin's three week tour of Venezuela gives plenty of more conventional travelogue insights, including the reason behind its name. European colonisers, seeing an indigenous population living at lakeside on houses built on stilts out of the water, felt they had found a smaller version of a famous Italian city - little Venice, in Spanish, becomes Venezuela.
Palin also highlighted the role of Simon Bolivar in Venezuela's creation as an independent state - and it isn't even the country named after him. So I feel I should probably read up on the South American Hero as a future project.
Alongside the water falls, the jungles, the lakes, and the mountains, Palin also highlights important local produce like blue crabs and high quality chocolate. However, the country's fortunes were made and lost in oil and oil is still the product that draws American interest. It is ironic then that Venezuela, a major oil producing state, was one of the first countries to lose all its mountain glaciers to global warming.
Alongside the beauty of the landscape and the hospitality of its people, Venezuela is plagued by poverty and toxic inequality as much as many other countries. While Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez may have had the charisma alongside a utopian socialist vision - internal corruption and external interference can compromise the very best of intentions. Hopefully, as Palin notes in his postscript
I don't know where the future for Venezuela lies, but I know that there is a great wealth hidden on those mountains and forests; gold and minerals and oil in abundance. There's another important commodity too: the enterprise of the Venezuelan people. That, and their welcoming generosity needs to be acknowledged by those in charge and also flaunted to the rest of the world.
Then Venezuela could be a country of many people's dreams, not just mine.
My experience of fiction books is that there is a very long lead in time, so I was surprised to see how quickly this book had made it into print in a matter of months, Palin and co having only completed their 21 day visit in February of 2025.
Having first known of Michael Palin as a comic star of Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Life of Brian, Ripping Yarns and A Fish Called Wanda, I was aware of his second career as a travel program maker and writer. However, I hadn't developed that awareness into reading or watching his travel products until now.
Serendipitously I came to his travel career as he was about to visit his one hundredth country at the surprising age of 82. In my head Michael Palin is perennially young (as indeed am I - we have both just been young for a very long time).
This is a shortish book consumed in a few spells of reading spread over a 24 hour period. The text is illustrated with lush photographs of scenery - include Palin standing on slippery rocks behind the wall of water that comprise one of Venezuela's remarkable waterfalls.
Besides the scenery and the people, Palin also gives is some insights into Venezuela's political situation with President Maduro clearly a deeply despised and compromised long standing dictator, who is holding into power after losing an election by the simple expedient of declaring himself a winner. I'm surprised Trump has such contempt for the man since that is exactly the kind of "Art of the Deal" manoeuvre that the grifting Agent Krasnov would not only admire, but love to pull himself.
Palin and his team had some difficult experiences with paranoid security forces eager to protect the name and status of their cult leader. As we see people (and bots) on social media in the UK fawning over the most undeserving and frankly treasonous idols, it is salutary to realise how fragile western democracy always has been. It is like a boulder delicately balanced on a knife edge and it doesn't take too much foreign billionaire money to push it off the assumed equilibrium and topple it into an abyss of dictatorship.
But anyway, Palin's three week tour of Venezuela gives plenty of more conventional travelogue insights, including the reason behind its name. European colonisers, seeing an indigenous population living at lakeside on houses built on stilts out of the water, felt they had found a smaller version of a famous Italian city - little Venice, in Spanish, becomes Venezuela.
Palin also highlighted the role of Simon Bolivar in Venezuela's creation as an independent state - and it isn't even the country named after him. So I feel I should probably read up on the South American Hero as a future project.
Alongside the water falls, the jungles, the lakes, and the mountains, Palin also highlights important local produce like blue crabs and high quality chocolate. However, the country's fortunes were made and lost in oil and oil is still the product that draws American interest. It is ironic then that Venezuela, a major oil producing state, was one of the first countries to lose all its mountain glaciers to global warming.
Alongside the beauty of the landscape and the hospitality of its people, Venezuela is plagued by poverty and toxic inequality as much as many other countries. While Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez may have had the charisma alongside a utopian socialist vision - internal corruption and external interference can compromise the very best of intentions. Hopefully, as Palin notes in his postscript
I don't know where the future for Venezuela lies, but I know that there is a great wealth hidden on those mountains and forests; gold and minerals and oil in abundance. There's another important commodity too: the enterprise of the Venezuelan people. That, and their welcoming generosity needs to be acknowledged by those in charge and also flaunted to the rest of the world.
Then Venezuela could be a country of many people's dreams, not just mine.
December 7, 2025
An enjoyable book which follows Michael Palin's journey around Venezuela.
The book itself is well written and clear, and adorned with some beautiful photos which help to bring the descriptive writing to life. whilst reading, it was very easy to picture the surroundings and the narrative - I imagine for those who have seen the show this book is a wonderful supplement.
I found the content itself fascinating. I hadn't really considered Venezuela as an 'interesting' country, simply due to difficult international relations existing for my entire life - yet, when looking past the crime, poverty, and politics, Michael Palin was able to highlight some of the humans and communities that are at the heart of Venezuela, and helped highlight it's not all terrible.
However, the elephant in Venezuela is the politics. I appreciated that the book explained the situation in Venezuela objectively, but did not jeopardise their Venezuelan colleagues by voicing risky negative opinions. As Palin noted, he'll be out of the country when this is all published - but his contacts won't be.
of course, this is not a book to discuss the politics in depth, yet it was fascinating to read how it is woven into the society, with the constant feeling of being spied lurking throughout each chapter.
I hadn't entered the library with the intention of picking up this book, not had I any known desire to learn about Venezuela. However, the previous night I had listened to NSTAAF guest starring Michael Palin, where this book was partly discussed. When entering the library, I noticed this book sitting on the 'New Releases ' table, and at that point I felt obliged. I'm glad I did so.
I have learnt a lot about Venezuela, and was left hoping that one day it may once again be a country one can safely visit.
The book itself is well written and clear, and adorned with some beautiful photos which help to bring the descriptive writing to life. whilst reading, it was very easy to picture the surroundings and the narrative - I imagine for those who have seen the show this book is a wonderful supplement.
I found the content itself fascinating. I hadn't really considered Venezuela as an 'interesting' country, simply due to difficult international relations existing for my entire life - yet, when looking past the crime, poverty, and politics, Michael Palin was able to highlight some of the humans and communities that are at the heart of Venezuela, and helped highlight it's not all terrible.
However, the elephant in Venezuela is the politics. I appreciated that the book explained the situation in Venezuela objectively, but did not jeopardise their Venezuelan colleagues by voicing risky negative opinions. As Palin noted, he'll be out of the country when this is all published - but his contacts won't be.
of course, this is not a book to discuss the politics in depth, yet it was fascinating to read how it is woven into the society, with the constant feeling of being spied lurking throughout each chapter.
I hadn't entered the library with the intention of picking up this book, not had I any known desire to learn about Venezuela. However, the previous night I had listened to NSTAAF guest starring Michael Palin, where this book was partly discussed. When entering the library, I noticed this book sitting on the 'New Releases ' table, and at that point I felt obliged. I'm glad I did so.
I have learnt a lot about Venezuela, and was left hoping that one day it may once again be a country one can safely visit.
December 13, 2025
Michael Palin invites you to share his latest journey, a three week trip to Venezuela.
A faithful companion and a trusted commentator he has the observations of a seasoned traveller, a people person and a sage-like wisdom that brings clarity and insight to all he sees and hears in a foreign environment.
It is a real pleasure to read all his experiences and reflections on this beautiful country. He does his best to record the real Venezuela, listen to its people and share their hopes and fears.
It is a country with a rich heritage, recent economic boom through oil reserves and an oppressive government led by a dictator, managed my fear and an unforgiving State police.
It is a beautiful land, full of natural wonders, rich untapped resources and a proud and creative people. Yet the political uncertainty and economic downturn has led many opposed to the regime to leave their homeland.
A must read for anyone wishing to sense the adventure of travel and gain some unbiased account of Venezuela.
Meanwhile it is a country brought to everyone’s attention by the confrontation with the USA. A country that faces an uncertain future where the likes of Michael Palin would not be free to travel within its borders with a film crew.
A wonderful book to catch a glimpse of a country and its people. A joy to read but a worry now about its future.
A faithful companion and a trusted commentator he has the observations of a seasoned traveller, a people person and a sage-like wisdom that brings clarity and insight to all he sees and hears in a foreign environment.
It is a real pleasure to read all his experiences and reflections on this beautiful country. He does his best to record the real Venezuela, listen to its people and share their hopes and fears.
It is a country with a rich heritage, recent economic boom through oil reserves and an oppressive government led by a dictator, managed my fear and an unforgiving State police.
It is a beautiful land, full of natural wonders, rich untapped resources and a proud and creative people. Yet the political uncertainty and economic downturn has led many opposed to the regime to leave their homeland.
A must read for anyone wishing to sense the adventure of travel and gain some unbiased account of Venezuela.
Meanwhile it is a country brought to everyone’s attention by the confrontation with the USA. A country that faces an uncertain future where the likes of Michael Palin would not be free to travel within its borders with a film crew.
A wonderful book to catch a glimpse of a country and its people. A joy to read but a worry now about its future.
December 14, 2025
Very good for what it was, a whistle top tour (3 weeks) taking in lots of places in an attempt to paint a picture of this very varied country. Was really just scratching the surface, but I guess that's understood, although just a little more time in each place would have added depth and, I assume, have added to the enjoyment for Michael and his group - I felt exhausted for him..! I do love Michael's writing style and the way he looks at issues from a very human, ordinary person, perspective. Will watch C5 series now..!
September 26, 2025
I learnt a lot about Venezuela and enjoyed being carried through Michael's travels and always looking for the joy in everything.
I listened to the audiobook in one sitting and I am currently in the queue to get my book signed by the man himself 🫡
I listened to the audiobook in one sitting and I am currently in the queue to get my book signed by the man himself 🫡
October 23, 2025
I do love Palin. I love his passion for travel and embracing a country's struggles as much as their strengths however I felt this was very light in terms of depth and whilst I enjoyed the many images, it wasn't balanced against the short chapters.
October 8, 2025
Well worth a read. Michael Palins works are always informative and entertaining and this one no less so. I learned a lot about Venezuela. Four stars only because its quite short.
October 12, 2025
Book can be described as a cash grab , very short , full of pictures , not the usual depth you would expect from a Palin book
October 19, 2025
An enjoyable but seemingly surface level exploration into Venezuela, it lacks a bit of the punch, insight and storytelling of Palin's other journeys.
December 14, 2025
A lovely wee read. 😀
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews