Walk into an airport bookstore and chances are the shelves will be groaning with travelogues by Bill Bryson, masterpieces of conversational banality one and all. Anecdotal evidence from my most recent experience of Luton airport (always a joy) suggests he has cranked out seven or so over the years, and they still sell phenomenally. No one ever lost money underestimating the crassness of the British public, as they say.

Try to locate a copy of Ibn Battutah, however, the 14th-century Traveller of Islam, who is to Bill Bryson as the Australian Test cricket side is to Little Walsingham Colts XI, and more likely than not you will draw a blank. Heywood Hill in Mayfair might be able to dig up a copy of Sir Hamilton Gibb's 1929 edition, but otherwise your best bet would probably be the British Library. Unlike the unstoppable Mr Bryson, Ibn Battutah has long been out of print, but perhaps that is only inevitable after 670 years.

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