Yates was cautiously lifting a cooked and curried crescent to his mouth. He stopped and looked at Pettit. ‘It’s a cockroach,’ he said. ‘I’m going to eat it.’
‘What in hell for?’

‘To find out what it tastes like.’ Here is a journey that begins with a shuddering disaster in the Himalayas, and ends with an ill-starred romance on Mars. In between are adventures down the rivers of Cambodia and Laos, battles with bulls in Australian country towns, encounters with French agents, freelance photography assignments, handbag-snatchers in Naples, thong-flingers in Rangoon, bread queues in Afghanistan, and more. This streetwise collection from master storyteller Allan Baillie spans centuries of cross-cultural relationships, civil wars and expeditions.