From the publisher:
Travel junkie Tim Hartley is a man with a thirst for understanding the modern world, or worlds, we live in. He is equally at home herding reindeer with the last of the Sami people or watching football in a silent crowd of 50,000 in North Korea. Whether he is getting lost in a favela in Brazil or taking his mum back to the Cheltenham Ladies' College, Hartley casts a piercing and sometimes judgmental eye on the kaleidoscopic world around him.
Kicking Off in North Korea is one man's attempt to make sense of globalisation, his beloved game of football and his own place in the world. Hartley can be serious when his is discussing blood feuds in Albania and hilarious when he 'does' Mexico in five-star luxury with his wife.
We meet his seven-year-old son Chester for a child's-eye view of the Palestinian question in Beirut and then follow them both to east London twelve years later where the son has a lesson for his dad.
In these uplifting travel diaries Hartley crosses the world in search of authentic stories and people. More often than not, he finds them.
The author:
Tim Hartley thinks his next best experience is around the corner, so he just keeps on travelling. He was a journalist with the BBC and a civil servant. He has also worked as a consultant in Europe, Central Asia and Africa. Hartley has an unhealthy interest in post-communist regimes and football. He has written about his obsession for the BBC's From our Own Correspondent programme and for a number of newspapers and magazines. Hartley lives in Cardiff with his son Chester, who shares his interests, and his wife Helen, who humours the both. His mother-in-law in Port Talbot once said to him, "How many trips of a lifetime can you have, boy?"
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