E. T. Laing

E T Laing was born in Northern Ireland, brought up in Newcastle-on-Tyne, educated at Oxford University and lives in London with his family. He works mainly in developing countries and when it dawned on him that it had taken him to at least 70 countries (see "In Itinere Veritas" blog on etlaing.wordpress.com; his email address is e.t.l@btinternet.com) he turned to writing about them.

The book Fakirs, Feluccas and Femmes Fatales - his second after a philosophical novel called An Amoral Philosopher - is a travel book, but not about travel for its own sake, touring or holidays chosen from brochures. It is travel reportage as a by-product of travel to work in countries that are mainly well off the tourist trail. The travel is warts and all, with disasters and miseries as well as high points. Jan Morris probably got to the heart of the matter when she said that the miseries of travels are "the salt that gives them flavour".

Most travel writers have to set out with a notebook in their rucksack, limited to a preset itinerary and a deadline to meet. In contrast, this book has a broader sweep: it draws on half a lifetime of material from countries where the way people think is outside our own box - countries in which the author lived and worked rather than just passed through.