Indeed Harry has grown a lot over these two months, finding his kingdom by the sea and aching to stay forever. He went through another gate, over the top of another air-raid shelter, through a hedge that scratched him horribly … on, and on, and on. Theroux does not seem to have been aware of this dimension in writing about the many eccentric people he met. The passenger explained that he heard about a signalman that liked to read, but his post was so remote that he had no access to books.

The Mermaid’s “seduction” works in a different way from Merman’s (which is overtly sexual), but Harry does lift her up, eat her food, sleep in her bed wearing her son’s clothes. Vielleicht lag es aber auch daran, dass Paul Theroux teilweise sehr ins Detail gegangen ist, das aber an unpassenden Stellen getan und somit auf mich oft kleinlich gewirkt hat. Then he undid the bundle and laid out the blankets on the right bunks and turned back to the shelter door, ready to take Dulcie from Mam. And then, during the last 2 weeks of his journey around Britain, there was a rail strike and he became dependent on bus and hitch-hiking to get around.

I picked this up originally because I rather like travelogues; I didn't realize that Theroux is famous for the grim, bitter unhappiness of his travel writing (Theroux's theory is that "a lot of travel is misery and delay"). I was trying to remember a character’s name, and realized she doesn’t ever identify herself as anything but “the Mermaid”--her father’s old name for her. Sadly, I chose badly as this is a book where I kept on wondering why he bothered to complete what seemed to be even for him a thankless and depressing endeavour.

Written as a children's story, it has some very dark and seriously unpleasant scenes, especially the ending. The houses to each side were still standing, though their windows had gone, and their slates were off.

I was most interested in the author’s travels through Scotland, although this is a small part of the book (only 4 chapters). A lot of the people encountered were on unemployment benefits and it is interesting reading about that in June 2022 when we are likely heading into another recession (a stagflationary one this time with very high inflation rates) and also resonances such as rail strikes which are happening in the same week that I finished reading this. It wasn't written in a particularly humourous way, just a bland unimpressive opinion piece that filled a book. More a snapshot of Britain in 1982 than travel book strictly about a place, but also some great general travel insights along the way too. He heaved the blankets on to his back, picked up the case with one hand and reached to unlock the back door with the other.