Readers of The Travels of a Fat Bulldog know what a treat they have in store with George Courtauld's new volume. As a Queen's Messenger he travels the world, delivering diplomatic bags (which often seem alarmingly bulky) and - as the Sunday Telegraph noted - 'along the way collects rare plants, odd people and strange dishes and exhibits splendidly pugnacious political views.'Here he is at it again, still bound by the Official Secrets Act - though we learn rather more this time about the sixteen-strong Queen's Messenger Corps which will celebrate its 800th birthday in 1999 - but as energetic, inquisitive and enthusiastic as ever about everything else he finds en route. He flourishes on a train ride from hell in Kenya, searches in vain for a Turkish hazel nut tree in Ankara, enjoys charming Byzantine mosaics lost in Rome, spends a night in a dungeon on the Great Wall of China, muses on curious exhibits in a Cairo museum.As if his official journeys were not diverting enough, between journeys he offers other diversions - memories of batty aunts, extraordinary phrase books, his list, composed at the age of fourteen, of 'Things Needed for Canoeing Round the World', which included among much else 'tea set (for visiters); Bible with funeral @C; Beads (for trading); Champaine; Dairys and log books'. Read Less