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RORY'S SIX TRAVEL BOOKS

 

Magic Bus: On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to India

 

In the sixties and seventies hundreds of thousands of wide-eyed young travellers headed East, blazing the hippie trail from Istanbul to Kathmandu. Forty years later, Rory sets out to discover what’s become of 6,000 miles of ‘hippie highway’. On the journey he meets the tie-dyed veterans who never made it home, grapples with locals reaping the rewards and regrets of Westernization, and crashes up against Taliban fighters, war zones and the paraphernalia of modernity which has turned the hippie trail into a path of dust and danger. ‘Utterly absorbing; if you read only one travel book this year, this should be it’ Alexander Frater

  

Falling for Icarus: A Journey among the Cretans

 

On a windy spring morning in an ancient village surrounded by mountains on Crete, Rory falls to earth. His mother had died a few months earlier and a single obsession had risen from his grief: the notion to build a feather-light flying machine. And so, on the island where Daedalus and Icarus had made man's maiden flight, Rory journeys back to beginnings, back into the Greek myths, and – with the help of effusive but irrepressible neighbours and plenty of wine – builds a plane and tries to fly... 'Destined to become a classic' the Scotsman.

  

Next Exit Magic Kingdom: Florida Accidentally

 

Rory sets out to discover that Florida’s greatest wonders are not to be found at Disney World but in the remarkable stories of ordinary men and women. On a quest that warms even Mickey's plastic heart, he considers the nature of human goodness in the sunshine state -- a place at once kooky and dangerous, superficial and sincere, sensationalist and dumb. 'Zippy and fun, with heart and energy and a restless haphazard charm. MacLean has wrestled the Sunshine State like an alligator and stuffed and mounted it for our readerly pleasure' Louis Theroux. Shortlisted for the WHSmith Travel Book Award.

  

Under the Dragon: Travels in Burma

 

In 1988 the Burmese people rose up against their military government. The unarmed demonstrators were cut down, leaving more than 5,000 people dead. 'Under the Dragon' recounts a journey through Burma some ten years later, meeting the victims - and the perpetrators - of that uprising. At the book's heart are the stories of four remarkable women, among them Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace laureate and elected leader, held under house arrest for over a decade. Winner of an Arts Council Writer’s Award and shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Prize. 'Read it. Read it. Read it. ' Fergal Keane (BBC London).

  

The Oatmeal Ark: From the Scottish Isles to a Promised Land

 

A wave-rocked, wind-tossed adventure story which reaches from Scotland to Nova Scotia, across Canada by water, and through three generations of extraordinary family history. It weaves ghostly invention through true stories, stitching imaginary characters into real events, to unravel Canada's epic history. ‘A truly astonishing performance’ wrote Jan Morris. ‘A fascinating family chronicle; challenging and satisfying’ The Toronto Globe and Mail. Nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

  

Stalin's Nose: Across the Face of Europe

 

According to the New York Times, Rory's first book is ‘a surreal, zanily nihilistic comedy’, describing a journey from Berlin to Moscow, through Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania only weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. A UK Top Ten best-seller and shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Prize, this is a story of the then forgotten half of Europe: black, comic, surreal yet painfully real, at once a documentary of a journey and a fantastical narrative. ‘A surreal masterpiece’ Colin Thubron. ‘Outrageously funny…the kind of book that you might refuse to lend to your friends for fear they’d never return it.’ Houston Chronicle