Journey to the Edge of the World

by Billy Connolly

In the summer of 2008 Billy Connolly set sail on a 10-week journey from ocean to ocean: from the Atlantic to the Pacific, by way of the Northwest Passage—a fabled route deep within the Arctic Circle that has thwarted explorers and fortune-hunters for centuries. For Cook, Drake, and countless other adventurers, the Northwest Passage has been an alluring but impossible journey, a trial of unparalleled physical and mental strength, a haunting and fascinating wilderness. Now the Arctic is melting at a rate of 36,000 square miles a year and the journey is finally possible. For the first time, if you're quick, you can sail freely, if precariously, from Newfoundland right round to Vancouver. By plane, rail, road. and boat, along coastlines and across sweeping landscapes that represent the final Northern frontier of the inhabited world for both man and beast, Billy's adventure will embrace a memorable mix of bizarre encounters, Hemingway-esque characters, incredible wildlife, forgotten languages, big game hunting, and all night carousing under the midnight sun. And he's taking us with him.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Comedy, Humor, Scotland, Biography, History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 19, 2009

About the author

William "Billy" Connolly, Jr., CBE is a Scottish comedian, musician, presenter and actor. He is sometimes known, especially in his native Scotland, by the nickname The Big Yin (The Big One). His first trade, in the early 1960s, was as a welder (specifically a boilermaker) in the Glasgow shipyards, but he gave it up towards the end of the decade to pursue a career as a folk singer in the Humblebums and subsequently as a soloist. In the early 1970s he made the transition from folk-singer with a comedic persona to fully-fledged comedian, a role in which he continues. He also became an actor, and has appeared in such films as Mrs. Brown (1997), for which he was nominated for a BAFTA; The Boondock Saints (1999); The Last Samurai (2003); Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004); and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008).

It is as a stand-up comedian that Connolly is best known. His observational comedy is idiosyncratic and often off-the-cuff. He has outraged certain sectors of audiences, critics and the media with his free use of the word "fuck". He has made jokes relating to masturbation, blasphemy, defecation, flatulence, haemorrhoids, sex, his father's illness, his aunts' cruelty and, in the latter stages of his career, old age (specifically his experiences of growing old). In 2007 and again in 2010, he was voted the greatest stand-up comic on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups.

Connolly has been married to comedian and psychologist Pamela Stephenson since 1989. In the book Billy, and in a December 2008 online interview, Connolly states he was sexually abused by his father between the ages of 10 and 15. He believes this was a result of the Catholic Church not allowing his father to divorce after his mother left the family. Due to this, Connolly has a "deep distrust and dislike of the Catholic church and any other organization that brainwashes people". In a 1999 interview with "The Sunday Herald" Connolly condemned the SNP as "racist" and the new Scottish parliament as a "joke".

In November 1998, Connolly was the subject of a two-hour retrospective entitled Billy Connolly: Erect for 30 Years, which included tributes from Judi Dench, Sean Connery, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, and Eddie Izzard.

Reviews

[Bionic Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Billy Connolly is a comedian and banjo-playing folk musician, an ex-welder from Partick, an area of Glasgow in Scotland. He is very proud of his Scottish roots although he now lives mostly in Miami, in the United States, and is world famous. Here he describes his journey around the virtually unknown coastal areas of the Arctic in his own inimitable fashion, with quirky humour, a zest for life, passion and wisdom. His enthusiasm is infectious, as he relates tales of eccentricity and wonder, conveying his idiosyncratic take on things.

To travel right across the the Northernmost parts of the world, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, has never been possible before. But now, because of global warming, the ice melts for a few weeks in the summer, so ironically it is possible to experience this epic journey. The book is lavishly produced, with colour photographs on every page, many being the sort of holiday snaps a reader might take of themselves, of people they meet and places they see on their travels. More spectacular shots of the landscape use a full page of this large book. The text is set out in three ways: a linking narrative, interspersed with little speeches or strongly worded expositions by Billy Connolly, and boxes of textbook information. It works well. Sadly, the large print version has no illustrations whatsoever, not even the map at the front.

The first section describes Nova Scotia, and the crossing over to Newfoundland. Billy Connolly starts at Halifax, the port where most of Canada's immigrant settlers landed. Although it was founded in 1749, most of the immigration occurred during World War II, when Canada provided sanctuary for thousands of evacuees fleeing persecution, from Germany, Holland, Italy or Russia. Shortly after the war there was an assisted passage scheme from Britain. Alexander Mackenzie, a Scot, was the first man to map Canada in 1879, and he also tried to find the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. He even called the longest river he found "Disappointment River", because it flowed North to the Arctic, and not to Alaska as he had hoped. So the Scottish connection in Canada is particularly strong. Billy Connolly was both surprised and enchanted to experience the "piping in" of the ship at Halifax, by what appeared to be 19th century Scottish highlanders.

He is clearly moved when he visits a graveyard in Halifax, devoted to those who died on "The Titanic". It had been established there by the White Star Line, who owned the famous ship. Most of the relatives of those who died would never be able to visit the graves, of course. Billy Connolly then visits the Highland Games at New Brunswick. We can feel his confusion, as these Canadians seem to be more Scottish than the Scottish themselves; the traditions having been kept alive and fiercely guarded. Yet New Brunswick started off inhabited by the Mikmaq Indians, before being settled by the French and English with a large influx of Scots and Irish. He says,

"Their descendants have kept that culture so intact that Scottish historians sometimes travel to Canada for advice on things that have been forgotten back home."

But he makes it clear that there is a lot of kitsch as well, stalls selling knick-knacks. Crossing to Cape Breton he feels that they too have hung on to their Scottishness speaking Gaelic, and keeping various dance and music traditions. He describes the Acadians in Cheticamp, descendants of French colonists, many of whom eventually headed south to settle in Louisiana, and are now referred to there as "Cajun". The Cajun style of playing the fiddle is directly traceable back to the Cape Breton fiddlers. And he describes the exhilarating experience of riding his Harley-Davidson motorbike along the Cabot Trail.

He felt very at home in Newfoundland describing it as "a fantastic place". The hospitality of one town, Gander, achieved world fame during the terrorist attacks on the USA on 11th September 2001, because so many aeroplanes were diverted there, and Gander was suddenly expected to cater for 6500 extra visitors. The inhabitants pulled out all the stops to help the people who had arrived on their doorstep. Billy Connolly called them,

"awful nice folk. They find it very easy to communicate... which is a very Irish thing in fact. People just swan up to you and talk to you like they've known you all their life."

But he didn't like the "theme park" "L'Anse aux Meadows", where fishermen have given up being fisherman, and now enact a Viking way of life for the tourists. As he points out, the Vikings were only there for a few years.

Part two starts with an apt quotation from John Ruskin,

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

This part of the book, about Baffin Island and the Inuit, is perhaps the most emotionally affecting part of the book. So far we have enjoyed Billy Connolly's antics and his sense of fun and eccentricity. Here we see a more sober side of him, as he views the change and loss of an entire culture. The name "Nunavut" ("our land") was coined as recently as 1999, when the Inuit were given autonomy over their territory on the southern coast of Baffin Island. The colonial history, as so often, was shameful. Representatives of the Canadian government could not pronounce the names of the inhabitants, so had renamed them with a Christian name and location number, giving them leather dog tags and insisting that these names and locations be used. Billy Connolly met a survivor from these times, who had been renamed "Adam E7-2256" in 1940. In 1969, an attempt was made to redress the situation replacing the names with Inuit names, but many could not adapt, and many of the kinships had been lost. Later on in the book, Billy Connolly learnt the trigger for the setting up of the Nunavut territory - in effect giving their own land back to the Inuit.

Formerly Nunavut was snow-bound, but now the snow has melted, and for several weeks in the summer it is actually a dust bowl. As a consequence the Inuit way of life has changed irrevocably. For four or five thousand years, their lifestyle had been based on hunting. Now though, they have been thrust too quickly into the twenty-first century. They have one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and a severe drink and drugs problem. Billy Connolly watched old film, in the Iqaluit museum, which showed earlier times, when Inuit people happily stood outside their igloos, wearing traditional sealskin clothes. He looked at the Inuit man next to him who appeared to be glued to the screen, wearing a baseball cap and a sweatshirt, and observed sadly,

"I should imagine he gently weeps. His whole world has changed radically; from the way of the dogsled to the Internet, prefabs and fast food. Tookie seemed completely unsure what his role in the modern world might be... His face will always haunt me and seeing him there like that made a wee hole in my heart."

There are mountains of rubbish all over the Nunavut area, dumps full of everything from half-frozen dead dogs to plastic waste and even vehicles, the Inuit having no procedure for coping with it. In their previous lifestyle "rubbish" was organic, and dropped anywhere, as it would go back to the land. Huskies are also a problem having overbred, and gone wild. Billy Connolly poignantly describes a simple scene,

"I spotted a husky dog creeping around a rubbish dump and that summed it all up for me. That husky should have been barking and woofing, charging through the snow with a sealskin collar, not sniffing at the rubbish. He didn't even know he was a metaphor."

He went on to Auyuittuq National Park, a beautiful Arctic wilderness, the name translating as "the land that never melts" although he observes wryly, "they'll have to change the name, it doesn't "perma" any more." He described the brilliant turquoise ice of the glaciers, and how he saw with his own eyes chunks of ice breaking off from icebegs and falling, and glaciers hanging over mountains as they retreated, "like a big drip of cream as if they're oozing into the valley."

In nearby Pangnirtung he noticed,

"Much of the town's social life revolves around fast food joints such as Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. At one end of the town kids were eating junk and doing wheelies, while at the other end the elders spotted a whale in the bay... Once again, though, I was saddened to see that their town, which is bang in the middle of all this sensational beauty, was a bit of a dump."

Billy Connolly does not mince his words about the incoming whalers, who made a profitable industry before leaving, or the Canadian Government who took away the Inuit names and stole away the children to "educate" them.

Igloolik, literally "there is an igloo here" is the geographical centre of Nunavut, and the territory's most traditional town. Billy Connolly found it remote, rural, neat and tidy, though an expensive place to live. Even though it had an old feel, one of the inhabitants he met who had been born in an igloo in 1936 now lived in a modern house with double glazing and cable television. This man told Billy Connolly how in Inuit mythology, white men were considered to be the result of a union between Inuit women and dogs. When the white explorers had arrived, they seemed to be so ugly and repulsive to them, that the Inuit thought they must be the children of these dog-like creatures, looking for their mothers. Here it was that he first encountered throat-singing, and tried to get to grips with the language of Inuktitut, which is still the first language in Igloonik, and from which we have words such as "kayak" and "anorak".

But at his next stop in Pond Inlet, Billy Connolly was confronted with the difference in the two cultures. He is very proud of being a self-proclaimed "citizen of the world" and springs to the defence of the indigenous Inuit to live their traditional lifestyles, killing whales and seals for their food and skins. He joined in a seal hunt here, trying to quell his mixed feelings. But later, witnessing a group of narwhals from the shore, watching them in delight frolicking and playing, he was shocked to the core to hear a gunshot, as the Inuit hunted them. It came home to him with a jolt then, how very different his own perceptions really were.

The third section of the book starts in the town of Resolute, Cornwallis Island, which is one of the coldest places on Earth,

"ugly with its sheds and industrial plants and dumps everywhere;"

This is where Billy Connolly learns of a disgraceful episode from recent history for which the Canadian government has now officially apologised, after an Enquiry called it, "one of the worst human rights violations in the history of Canada". In 1953 some Inuit were forcibly relocated from northern Quebec, purely to establish Canadian sovereignty during the Cold War. They were made promises of a good lifestyle, and the option to return, both of which were broken. The harsh land proved impossible for them to adapt their skills to, and huge numbers died, mostly very young. One grave in the town of Resolute was for a man born in 1964, who died in 1990 at just 26 years of age.

He muses over this episode from history, and many more shameful aspects of colonial history, where the explorers who were credited with "discovering" places (notwithstanding the peoples who were already living there...) were usually the ones with the most money, and those who may have deserved credit were often overlooked. John Franklin's expedition is shrouded in mystery and conjecture.

"The more I followed in the footsteps of Franklin, the angrier I felt at the propaganda I'd been fed about him all my life. I was always led to believe that he and the rest of those explorers were heroes when as far a I could see, they were a bunch of t******. The touting of upper-class idiots as heroes has happened throughout British history and I am tired of it... I think they are dithering, blithering idiots...prancing about the Arctic with a [candelabra and] silver dinner service, dressed as if he was going to dinner in Pall Mall. The big mistake these people made was that they took Britain along with them in their ships."

Franklin had ignored his captain's advice and gone into Peel Sound the wrong way. Billy Connolly says with a mixture of sorrow and disgust,

"It was here that they got stuck for two years, in mountainous ice that grew before their very eyes, making huge thundery noises. And it was here that they tried all their escapes, towing their lifeboats full of things they didn't need."

Franklin's body was never found, despite thousands of pounds being sunk into funding further futile expeditions, and there is evidence of cannibalism, and possible lead poisoning. Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer known as the first to travel along the Northwest passage from Gjoa Haven, ("Uqsuqtuq" meaning "plenty of fat") got to know the Inuit, and learnt many survival skills from them. He said,

"If you want to do these wonderful people a real favour, leave them alone to live the way they have always lived."

Years later, Billy Connolly thinks he was right, observing,

"This is beyond the magnetic North Pole, in a place where a couple of months a year you have no light, plus nine months of winter... These kids see everybody else in the world having a great laugh with rock and roll and boogie-woogie but they're stuck there... There are plenty of reasons for topping yourself."

Amundsen claimed that the discovery of the Northwest Passage should be given not to Franklin but to Dr. John Rae, who came from the Orkney Islands, and is known as "the hero time forgot". He was second-in-command on one of the year-long expeditions to look for Franklin, and proved the existence of the Northwest passage, succeeding where Franklin had failed. Later, he mapped the area. He was discredited mainly because he was the first to convey the fact that cannibalism had been involved, and the British people, mainly led by Franklin's widow, would not believe that this could be the case with their stout moral navy officers. Even her friend, the great Charles Dickens would not believe it, saying that they were probably eaten by animals, and if not,

"no man can show... that this sad remnant of Franklin's gallant band were not set up and slain by the Esquimaux themselves."

Nobody listened to individual tales of the surviving sailors by the Inuit, who tried to help various individuals over a period of four years. These stories were ignored because they came from the mouths of "savages". John Rae continued to study indigenous tribes, for the rest of his long life, exploring Greenland and Iceland, exploring new territory, having areas named after him from the USA to Russia. Yet so far Britain has ignored him.

The only way for Billy Connolly to traverse the Northwest Passage was over 8 days by cruise ship, which he referred to sardonically as "the floating old folks' home" musing over the fate of earlier explorers, and casting a jaundiced eye over his fellow passengers to consider who was the least stringy! He has never been what he calls "beige", despite being 65 himself by this time. When a polar bear was sighted in the distance he described the rush to the side of the ship, even though it was a mere speck on the horizon. Billy Connolly mused over the fact that he had been spending time with the Inuit, who described killing a polar bear single-handed with a knife, relishing the luxury of the meat. He felt emotionally more akin to the tourists, in their excitement, but loathed the "happy tripper" feel of it, the way people came from centrally heated homes to a warm comfortable berth on board a heated ship, returning home again feeling that they had seen the world. Mentally he was on the side of the Inuit, for their traditions and culture.

Landing at Tuktoyaktuk (meaning "it looks like caribou"), or "Tuk", which was formerly called Port Brabant until 1950, Billy Connolly was surprised to learn that the chief pastime here in the Northwest Territories was a form of television bingo. He was fascinated by the "pingos", naturally occurring little hillocks made of ice, and covered with moss and small plants, and by the biggest walk-in fridge in the world. Many of the Inuit children who were sent away to have a Western "education" were forcibly taken from here. Some of them never returned home, and scandalously some suffered both physical and sexual abuse, for which the Canadian governments has formally apologised.

"I still find it hard to get over the huge vastness of the Northern Territories," he says, travelling along the Dempster Highway, ending in Dawson City, Yukon, "a bit windblown and tumbleweedy." It is known as the epicentre of the Klondike gold rush in 1896, which is famously written about in verse by Robert Service, who as a result became known as the "Canadian Kipling". The writer Jack London also lived here, having gone there with his brother to pan for gold. Yukon is a huge area, twice the size of Britain, but only has a few thousand inhabitants, and in Tombstone Territorial Park,

"jagged black granite peaks, alpine lakes and an explosion of colour in between. It took my breath away; it was amazing."

In the final section of the book Billy Connolly is in more familiar territory, travelling down the West coast of Canada on his Harley Davidson. He remembered the descriptions of the Yukon from "White Fang," which he had read as a boy. In Telegraph Creek, British Columbia, he met up with Nancy Ball, "one of the great highlights of the trip", a tiny elderly woman who ran a great ranch all on her own. He heard tales of grizzly bears from those who lived alongside them, and saw bears in the wild for himself. In New Aiyansh he met a member of the Nisga'a, Alver Tait, sent away from his parents as a "victim of the disgraceful residential school system". Returning to his home Alver Tait immersed himself in his native culture. Billy Connolly stayed for some time with the Nisga'a, Canada's only self-governing Forest Nations tribe, being profoundly impressed by these people, who seemed so gentle, spiritual and unresentful despite all the maltreatment they had suffered at the hands of white Canadians.

Despite the sorry history he chronicles, Billy Connolly has only praise for modern Canada and Canadians. He loves the country,

"There is a size and beauty to everything in Canada that takes your breath away - mile upon mile of fjords and mountains and forests and rivers. The overpowering scale of the country came home to me when I realised that it had taken 10 weeks to cross... British Columbia, the flower of them all, with its cowboys and Indians, its bears and its eagles... Canada is in good shape. They've got some lovely folk there and I never met helpfulness or had a welcome like it anywhere in my life."

These are a few personal highlights; any reader will discover different ones of their own. I could have described the carefully crafted scarecrows of world despots by the fiddle-playing Chester, the significance of the totem poles by the First Nations, felling a huge tree (diseased due to the infestation of mountain pine beetles) in Horsefly, British Columbia, or kissing a cod. If you have a yen for the "hairy, wild and weird" Big Yin, and a sense of curiosity, you will love this book. It is a delight to read, entertaining, funny, poignant and devastating in parts, moving and informative. What more could you want from a book of this type?

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book. Love Billy and his humour and humanity make this journey come alive

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Billy Connolly the comedian - every time I see one of his videos I end up laughing out loud. I've also see the program where he travels around New Zealand and Australia. Lots of travel information and super shows in some not very big communities.

Well this book, Journey to the Edge of the World blew me away. I always say that I want to see more of my country and this book only enhances that want.

Billy Connolly talks about the people and places that he visits with respect and a lot of wide eyed wonder. He doesn't gloss over the not so pretty bits that he sees nor does he shy away from criticism when he thinks that it's warranted. But again, the respect he shows is endearing. His time spent with elders in the northern communities is lovely and his feelings towards some of them are almost reverential.

Bill Connolly clearly loves the land that he visits and is able to use his humour at nearly every turn. That doesn't mean that his trip through the Northwest Passage is perfect. But his telling of his tales seems very fitting to the time and circumstances around him.

This is a large size book so be sure to make yourself comfortable as you travel along!

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1848, Captain John Franklin & his crew went missing whilst searching for the Northwest Passage - a route between the Atlantic & the Pacific oceans deep within the Canadian Arctic. If you've ever read 'The Terror' by Dan Simmons, the book was based on that journey. In 2008 comedian & sometime actor, Billy Connolly, completed a 10-week voyage to the area for a TV series & this book is the resulting accompaniment.

I rather enjoyed this. I've never seen the TV documentary series but if it was as entertaining as the book it must have been good viewing. Alongside his trademark humour, Connolly shows a great deal of understanding & respect for the Inuit culture, although I struggled with the parts about hunting seals etc, so I read those pages rather quickly. Otherwise it was an engaging & informative trip through the NP.

[Jenna (Falling Letters) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted 20 April 2020 at Falling Letters.

Beginning at Pier 21 in Halifax and ending at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island, Billy Connolly gives us a look at the Northwest Passage today. Connolly, a Scottish former comedian, has hosted a variety of limited travel television series in recent years. Journey to the Edge of the World accompanies a four part series of the same name. (I haven’t seen this one, but I did enjoy some of his Route 66 series.)

Connolly’s voice shines in this book. If you’ve ever heard him speak, you will his clear and distinct brogue (there’s a word I don’t get to use often, lol) as you read. He does not hesitate to voice his opinions, but he does so respectfully. He often acknowledges that, as an old white Scottish man, he comes from a totally different place than most of the people with whom he interacts. His reflections on change in the north (both culture and environmental) made this book a more thoughtful read than I anticipated. The book also includes personal and emotional experiences, such as his time in a sweat lodge (pg. 272). Connolly’s personality and perspective make this an engaging read. I hope the following quotes illustrate what I’ve described:

“I watched some of the fishermen at work and it was quite different from the stereotypical image of the salty dog sitting by the dock, smoking his pipe and talking about monsters in the wide blue yonder, or breaking into a sea shanty. These days, it’s all fork-lift trucks and young men and intensive production. I don’t think health and safety was much of an issue for these guys, either – one chap straddled an incoming net in such a way that he could have lost his family jewels in a jiffy; he’d have turned around and been a soprano. I couldn’t help thinking that this way of life was going to go, too. The equipment gets more and more sophisticated and so they catch more, but they can’t keep fishing at that density without consequence.” (Pg. 56)

“I thought Jim, the pilot, was kidding me at first when he offered to let me fly. […] But he wasn’t, and when he told me to turn it to the left or the right my heart sang a wee song. Georges Simenon, the Belgian novelist, once used an expression that I use a lot: […] he wrote, ‘I received your letter yesterday and I had a little party in my heart.’ Every now and again I have a party in my heart and flying that plane over that great lump of ice was one of those moments.” (Pg. 76)

“I asked the owner how far the bear had to be away for [polar bear deterrent] to be effective. ‘A metre and a half,’ he replied. ‘I’m dead,’ I said. ‘If a bear gets that close, I might as well spray myself.'” (Pg. 95)

Lastly, I want to note the book’s design. Journey to the Edge of the World is more of a coffee table book. It has lots of text to read, but there are also many images. Call out boxes offer further historical background throughout.

[Cathal Kenneally · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, this is not a book about comedy, so let’s get this out of the way to start with. What it is though, is a travelogue in the vein of Bill Bryson. I think he’d write something similar if he tried the same journey.
One thing about Billy Connolly is, he’s a raconteur; a great one at that. This is self evident in his comedy. It helps when writing a book like this. Little vignettes pop up all over the place and it’s an enjoyable read.
I’ve watched his comedy and been lucky to see him live twice. He vacillates in his shows: telling a story then going off into a different tangent and usually an unrelated topic but he eventually gets back to what he started off with. There’s none of this here but I suppose it could be a blessing in disguise because otherwise the book would be twice the length it actually is. I’m slightly disappointed that there’s not enough photos included. Maybe the weather was too inhospitable for cameras.
Whatever about the weather being inhospitable, the welcome he received from a lot of natives was far from inhospitable. I gave it four stars because of not enough photos otherwise I would have given it five.

[Bonnye Fleming · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delightful trip I’ve taken with my friend Billy Connolly. Of course, he’s never met me, but I’ve known him for years. His “Voice” is unmistakable. His love of life is contagious.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wandering is in his soul.

The man is a storyteller. An interesting book with interesting tales. It is intriuing, fun and all round entertaining.

This man cracks me up. I went to see him live when he was in Australia, and I hurt from laughing so much as I did reading his books. Some of the stories in this book I heard at his show, but it never fails to entertain whether reading or listening live.

Have a read you won't regret it.

[Jennifer Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one a great way to explore this beautiful landscape from the comfort of my my sofa

[Ruchir Pathak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a target of completing atleast 12 books this year (last year I completed only 9) at the rate of 1 book per month, I am late by 1 day, however completed my 3rd book of the year JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD by BILLY CONNOLLY, a scotsman travelling northern canada.

This is my first read of him, and I loved the book, the way it is written with no prejudice and the language is so simple you can easily understand it and feel it. I hate those books and writers who intentionally wrote hard English, there are some highly intellectual Indian writers. If you pick their books, you have to have a dictionary with you, reading a book should be enjoyment not a punishment, that’s why you’re reading it in the first place, to pass your spare time. Case is different with legendary writers though who creates their own language like JRR TOLKIEN, I am his fan, however I was not able to read or complete one of his book, very hard language.

Billy has travelled the northern canada starting from Newfoundland, travelling to northwest passages, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon and ending in British Columbia, and gave us the wonderful experience with his writing, you can feel you are there with him, and now want to visit these places very badly. The book is around 331 pages, and divided across 4 parts, and each chapter starts with the name of the place he visited. And this book is less like a travelogue and more like a travel memoir, he met wonderful people and pass his time, he shared his personal experiences of the land and the inhabitants, the harsh conditions yet so soothing feel. He also gave some historical references and stories to go with, along with 39 reference notes at the end, marking with a number in between the chapters, so you could also see the reference story of that place.

Yes, at some places he looked like bordering on commenting some racial nuances but other than that, he looked very genuine in his writing, what he felt he wrote. In between there are many italic paragraphs, which is just like his personal feelings he wrote. It also have some beautiful coloured pictures in between where you can see him meeting the people he mentioned in his book. I very much loved this book of his, I may have one more book of him in my collection, let me check that now. My rating for this book is a solid 4.5/5.

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting read about northern Canada and its peoples.
I've been a fan of the Big Yin for many a year but something in this book really got my goat.
In it whilst talking about countries who've had to change their way of thinking Mr Connolly mentions kiwi fruit being created out of the old Chinese gooseberries, and states it was Australia who did this.
I call complete and total bullshit on this.
Having a New Zealand wife, and having been here himself, you'd think he'd know better.
And one would think the researchers, proof readers, publishers, etc should have picked up on this glaring faux pa.
After that how could I possibly believe completely everything I read in this book?

[Janet Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a bit apprehensive about this book, not caring much for Billy Connolly as an entertainer, but the review I read was so glowing, I decided to give it a go, and I was so pleased I did!
Here was someone who was gentle and kind and fascinated by everyone he met. I couldn't have enjoyed it more, and will be giving it as a Christmas present
Highly recommended

[Ray Smillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this, having only seen some episodes of the TV series. Billy has an easy to read style, with a mixture of irreverence and respect for the lifestyle of Canadians. Given that much of this journey is north of the Arctic circle, then it is a hard life taken very much in their stride for the locals. Well worth reading with much interesting history throughout.

[Malcolm Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It details Billy Connolly's 2008 trip up through the Arctic Circle and his views of the places and people he sees. Full of wit and humour, it's a book to cheer up the darkest day.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Billy is a hero of mine and I like books about travel so this was a real gem for me, very interesting to here about the places Billy goes in this book, the people he meets and the different cultures he comes across. The way he tells it also adds great fun to the book.

[Carol Griffiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining and whimsical journey through the north of Canada. It is filled with Billy's humour but also contains perceptive comments on the past and present of this enormous land.

[Marion Roux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful - his adventures spanning 10 weeks in the Arctic Wilderness and Northern passage.

[Chris Wilby · Rating 5 out of 5]

An adventure we'd all want to do, interacting with the people nobody does it so well. I already warmed to Billy in the first few pages on his life values.

[Mr Warren Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a true nomad. Billy in his element, getting to know the people not just the places.

[Jo Bennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book to accompany Billy Connolly's 2008 tour of the Northwest Passage is beautifully illustrated with stunning pictures of the landscape and people he encountered along the way in the Canadian far north. As everything is written by Connolly from his point of view it is very much his reflections on what he sees around him, about his value judgements and reactions, but there is probably not a better person to do this with his charming self deprecating wit and his ability to connect with strangers on a profound level.

The book is a chronological diary of his journey, beginning with Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Here he is immersed in the world and traditions of the descendants of the Scottish and French settlers, their music and particular brand of nostalgia for countries that no longer exist and celebration of the Viking connections with the area.

Then he gets on a Harley and moves North to Nunvut, territory of the Inuit granted to them by the Canadian goverment in repayment for years of brutal colonial rule which saw the children of the natives shipped away from their homes to be 'educated' and the Inuit and their towns renamed. He reflects on the Inuit responses to climate change and going from an intinerant to a settled lifestyle and experiences the juxtaposition between the modern world of high speed broadband and the traditional one of hunting and throat singing.

Moving north over the Arctic circle to Baffin Island he boards a cruise ship, a much hated experience but one that does take him through the Northwest Passage and the history of the Europeans who died trying to find it.

He then boards his bike again to travel south through the Northwest Territores meeting the Inuit of the west cost before heading south with a fruit seller in his massive truck through abandoned gold rush ghost towns and experiencing modern day gold panning.

He ends up in the Yukon, staking a mineral claim and British Columbia, spending time with ranchers, cowboys and totem pole carvers, experiencing the rigours of a sweat lodge, becoming inducted into the Killer Whale tribe as 'Prince of Laughter' and watching grizzly bears and golden eagles catch the salmon running upriver , ending his journey logging on the coast.

A stunning book that taught me much about one of the wildest land places in the world, narrated by a charismatic and entertaining author.

[Tom M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Side Note: I don't care for Billy Connolly the comedian, but I do enjoy BIlly Connolly the travel host.

I had first watched this series a couple years ago, and then found the book at a used bookstore last month. Like the McGregor/Boorman motorcycle series, the books and the videos go hand in hand. I find Billy to be a fantastic host, as he's typically open and warm with everyone he meets.

However, and this why I was considering rating even a 3.5 on this one, is that he gets annoyingly preachy about something every few pages. The book is 309 pages, and it seems like 50 of them are his preachy ramblings on whatever topic is irritating him at that particular point in the journey. Don't get me wrong, his main narration is fine and descriptive. It's that his ramblings get inserted into the narration as separate sections and it throws off the flow of the book to me. I want to read about Billy's journey, I don't really care to have to read his soapboxing, even if he makes valid points.

Also adding into breaking of narration flow: There are boxed off sections that give a historical background about a particular area or event. These are fine, but they too are separated and jammed into the middle of the main narration. It'd have been better if they were worked into the narration instead of their own flow-breaking section.

[Agnese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in a colloquial style it’s an easy read. The author takes the reader through arctic country, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia along a northern route that includes the North West Passage. The descriptions of the landscapes are always accompanied by that of the people that the author meets on his journey. The strength of the book is in fact the depiction of cultures and lifestyles that developed and persist in those solitary lands. The author easily approaches people, talks to them with a genuine interest and he’s let in their everyday lives. He gets to know their values and traditions and shares them with the reader. A bit self-celebrative at times, but not unexpectedly coming from somebody who usually chooses to speak from a stage.

[Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely retelling of a TV travelogue. Comedian Billy Connolly enjoys meeting people and discovering new cultures around the world. This book is the story of his travels in Canada' arctic north. I particularly liked the fact that the voice of the book was so authentically Billy's and recalled parts of the series I had seen recently on TV. Well illustrated although there TV had the advantage. The book benefitted from nearly 40 pages of numbered notes at the back of the book about various points of interest.
I have since learned that Billy could have found the remains of pingos also in Wales!

[Jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you are interested in a light breeze of travelogue through really difficult terrain this is most definitely worth picking up. i greatly enjoyed reading billy connolly's anecdotes and was very pleased with the overall tone of the text. he wasn't brash and abrasive (most of the time), but rather a gentle observer and appreciator of other cultures. judging by the photo inserts, there apparently was a television crew following him on this trek through the great white north. i look forward to screening it sometime.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Completed a few days ago. This travelogue is very different to watching Billy Connolly's stand-up act on stage or TV. This is the story of his travels around the Northern extremes of Canada, and full of anecdotes of people he met, and descriptions of the places he visited. It has an extensive numbered note section at the back with factually and historically relevant information, which I read as I read the book and found both informative and interesting.
It was quite a long journey and it is quite a big book, but highly recommended for armchair travellers like me.

[Blaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always wary about books written by celebrities concerning their travels in one's country. The book tends to be more about them than the topic they intended to write on. Not in this case. Connolly does an excellent job at exploring the unique people he encounters along with some of the quirks\personalities of this great land of ours (Canada). He really does a fantastic job and this book is well worth the read. It ended far too quickly. Nice job, Billy

[Pip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ripping great yarn about Billy Connolly's journey from Nova Scotia up through the Arctic Circle and down through the Ukon and British Columbia. Billy really knows how to pace a story This book is made to be read out loud.
Not the best researched but has some really nice moments. Generally I quite like the up mood. If Billy Connolly was a dog I think he would be a cocker spaniel.

[Judy Beyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books about travellers and their experiences are my favourite genre. Especially when they involve food. This one doesn't, but I love Billy Connolly as a travel presenter and writer. He shows great compassion and respect for the people of the Arctic. How they do it is beyond me...
The notes at the back were useful but oh-so dry!

[David Carter]

a very good friend gave me this book as a birthday gift and i continue to enjoy both it and the generous nature of the person who thought so much of me to give me this book - i am humbled

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book i've ever read. No words can describe it.