The British are coming!

They say write about what you know….so for my first blog post for Auckland Libraries, I thought I’d write about my obsession. It’s one of the best things to have ever come out of the ol’ United Kingdom. You can take your history, your monarchy, castles, and Earl Grey tea, it’s the best thing, ever (I’m sorry Kate).

So, if you have time in your life for a new obsession (which I’m guessing you do, it’s the holidays after all), here are my picks for the best British comedy to veg out on the couch to.


1. Monty Python's Flying Circus
The show that established the comedians John Cleese and Michael Palin’s, and filmmaker Terry Gilliam’s fame, this classic show is the grandfather of the comedy world. It is hard to believe it is forty years old. Renowned for using short animations as ‘links’ between sketches, it allowed the performers and writers creative freedom to not have to use traditional punchlines. There is also plenty of footage dedicated to mid-thirties men dressed as elderly British ladies, which doesn’t hurt. Watch if you love surrealism, and prepare to start quoting the ‘Dead Parrot’ sketch.

2. The Mighty Boosh
Named after the childhood hairdo of creator Noel Fielding’s brother, this show is like a modern-day Monty Python. Just like with Monty Python, the writers star as the main characters in their creation. Combining frequent pop culture references, guest appearances, and even some damn catchy music written by creator Julian Barratt, this show is childlike brilliance.

3. Blackadder 
Ahh, Blackadder. Almost everyone in the English-speaking world will recognise the star of this show, due to his future role as the mute Mr Bean. Rowan Atkinson, with fellow British actors Stephen Fry, Tony Robinson, Tim McInnerny, Miranda Richardson and Hugh Laurie, proves he’s just as funny being vocal as he is with his mouth shut. The four series of Blackadder prove to be like a fun history class; covering medieval times, Queen Elizabeth’s court, the dim wit of George III (played with great ineptitude by Hugh Laurie), and finally, World War One, which ends with a moving tribute to the people who lost their lives in the Great War.

4. The IT Crowd
A contemporary of the Mighty Boosh (look out for the shared actors), this show is great for geeks, and for the people who love them. I challenge you not to fall in love with the protagonists; misanthrope Roy, socially backward but cute-as-a-button Moss, and career-minded Jen. Much of the humour comes from the clash of their respective worlds. Jen is socially adept, but doesn’t know the first thing about IT (in one memorable episode, she lifts up a small black box, and calls it “the internet”) and the intelligent slackers of the IT department who are almost constantly socially awkward. This show comes with so many references that will make your little geeky heart sing.

These are a great place to start, and remember to hit me up in the comments section if you want any more suggestions ;)

Happy New Year!

Travels on a paper plane

If you can't afford to go travelling just now, the next best thing is to live vicariously through someone who has. It may be a sign of our economic times that there seems to be fewer armchair travel books out than usual. That's a shame. Nothing like flitting off to Patagonia or the south of France with someone else who's had to foot the bill and mangle the language. Especially if they suffer along the way.

It probably reveals a lot about me that I don't enjoy books about people upping stakes to Tuscany, discovering the ineffable beauty of life and launching their own line of spumante. Smug b-----s. I like books about people who go to Moldova, eat unspeakable things, have their pants mauled by goats, and narrowly avoid being married to someone's hairy, toothless cousin. Now that's entertainment.

But I realise that not all my readers share such gentle tastes. I have therefore compiled a list of recent travel stories that may amuse, inspire or possibly educate.

Goats not guaranteed.

The Further Adventures of an Idiot Abroad - Karl Pilkington

Britain's favourite idiot is back. Safely home from his latest travels, Karl has decided it is time to share his hard-earned wisdom of the world. Taking the bucket list '100 Things to Do Before You Die' as his starting point, Karl combines brilliant stories from his recent adventures to Alaska, Siberia and beyond.

Follow the Money: A Month in the Life of a Ten-Dollar Bill - Steve Boggan
British journalist Steve Boggan sets free a ten-dollar bill and accompanies it on its journey for thirty days and thirty nights across 3,300 miles. As he cuts crops with farmers in Kansas, gets wasted with a blues band in Arkansas and hangs out at a quarterback's mansion in St Louis, Boggan enters the lives of ordinary (and extraordinary) people as they receive and pass on the bill. Add the missionaries from Missouri, the Amish in Michigan, the banker from Chicago and the deer hunters from Detroit, and what emerges is a chaotic, affectionate and funny portrait of a modern-day America that tourists rarely see.

Swiss Watching: Inside the Land of Milk and Money - Diccon Bewes
A portrait of the land and its people - bristling with guns, but famed for its neutrality, the home of ground-breaking science and technology, but also stifling tradition, and where cuckoo clocks are actually from over the border, 80 per cent of the population is from somewhere else, and trains don't always run on time! Welcome to Switzerland, a land about so much more than clocks, chocolate and cheese.

100 Places You Will Never Visit: The World's Most Secret Locations - Dan Smith
Included in this descriptive guide to top-secret tourist destinations are Fort Knox, the Coca-Cola safety deposit box, the Tora Bora caves in Afghanistan, the Tucson Titan missile site, the Vatican Archives, Three Mile Island and the Chapel of the Ark in Ethiopia. The world is full of secret places that we either don't know about, or couldn't visit even if we wanted to. This is the only way in.

Crazy River: A Plunge Into Africa - Richard Grant
No one travels like actor and madman Richard (E.) Grant, and really, no one should. He gets waylaid by thieves and hookers before he even sets off to explore the uncharted Malagarasi, and dodges more than a few bullets. As well as hippos, crocodiles and civil war, and a fever that wants to ensure there's never a Withnail 2. Grant secures an audience with the president of Rwanda, before finally casting up on the shores of the Nile, a more well-travelled, but no wiser, man.

Touching the World: A Blind Woman, Two Wheels and 25,000 Miles - Cathy Birchall
Cathy Birchall is the first blind person ever to circumnavigate the globe on a motorcycle, covering 26,385 miles, 31 countries and five continents on an 18-year-old bike. From India to Machu Picchu, this is a travel story from another perspective. On their travels Cathy and her companion Bernard overcome every obstacle with strength and courage - helped in generous measure by the unwavering kindness of strangers around the world.

Meander: East to West Along a Turkish River - Jeremy Seal
The Meander River is so famously indirect that its name has come to signify digression. Jeremy Seal travels it in a one-man canoe from Turkey's steppe interior - the stamping ground of such illustrious adventurers as Xerxes, Alexander the Great and the Crusader Kings - to the great port city of Miletus, home of the earliest Western philosophers. Along the way he unpicks the history of this remarkable region, and encounters a rich assortment of contemporary characters.

The Green Road into the Trees: An Exploration of England - Hugh Thomson
Hugh Thomson's 400-mile journey to the coast through the old ways of England, used by its ancient peoples. Along the way he relates remarkable findings about the Celts, Saxons and Vikings that have yet to reach the wider public, and meets a host of modern eccentrics who cast light on England as it is now. 

Brazil - Michael Palin
The latest from the former Python and frequent flier, to accompany a new series. From the Venezuelan border and the forests of the Lost World where he encounters the Yanomami and their ongoing territorial war with the gold miners, Palin follows Teddy Roosevelt's disastrous expedition of 1914. He encounters the hunter-gatherers of the interior, the descendants of African slaves with their culture of rituals and festivals and music, the large German community and the wealthy guachas of the Pantanal.

Looking for Adventure - Stephen Backshall

After a rainy-day visit to the museum, seven-year-old Steve Backshall became obsessed with exploring the vast, untamed wildness of Papua New Guinea. Full of incredible wildlife, extraordinary wilderness, jungles, cannibals, pitfalls, triumph, danger and excitement, Looking for Adventure is the irresistible, inspiring story of a little boy who let his heart rule his head.