How to Make Friends and Oppress People: Classic Travel Advice for the Gentleman Adventurer

by Vic Darkwood

Book Overview

No traveler to date has matched the intrepid 19th-century gentleman for his bravery, derring-do, and ability to make a perfect cup of tea in the most malarial of climes. But the sun has set on the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312366922
• ISBN13: 9780312366926
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Don't go to exotic and/or impoverished locations without it!

Using Darkwood's wit, quotes from 18th, 19th and early 20th Century travel books and some choice period illustrations this book is a fun collection of absurdities. I read it on a long bus ride from the Gaza border down to the tip of the Sinai and I must say it really hit the spot. Travel has never been so much fun!

Hilarious and Fun

This is an engaging and utterly engrossing book. Highly recommend this gem when you are traveling, if not for the entertainment value but for some ludicrous exerpts from old travel guides. Hilarious and a fun read that you won't want to put down.

forward into the past

Vic Darkwood has mined the hilarious regions of travel guides from the 1820's to the Victorian era. Those were the days of imperial ambition when Europeans could travel the globe and admire the "strange" cultures of Asia, Africa and remote parts of Europe and the Americas. Darkwood has extracted the most bizarre anecdotes and travel "tips" for our edification. It is funny when it isn't scary. Just put another raw egg in your shoe to cushion your foot when hiking. Be cautious when building fires in boats, and so on. Darkwood writes and collects like a man from another time. The book includes many wonderful period illustrations.