Long Way Round - Chasing Shadows Across The World

Famous actor and son of famous director motorbike around the world the 'wrong way', have arguments, get petulant, have touching experience and get back just in time - for what? Oh yeah, to get back to being a famous actor and son of famous director. That's about it.

Well, I should say more. I don't know much about the other guy (Charley Boorman) but I always thought that Ewan McGregor seemed like quite a nice person. We all know he could be a good actor (Trainspotting), A 'not bad' singer (Moulin Rouge) and a chancer (Star Wars - Episode 10 - Take the money and run), but I never really had him down as being a bit too 'precious' for his own good. And that is the way he came over to me... a little bit spoilt. Yes, I know I don't know the guy, but I have to assume things from his public profile.

So, to this book... I felt like it was written by a PR, with a few bits from Ewan's and Charley's diaries to give it authenticity. I am sure they wrote every bit of it, but it feels like long stretches of nothing and then something a bit interesting. Mind you, if we were being literal here, I imagine that travelling across Russia on a motorbike could be a bit like that.

The thing is, I was looking forward to this book, but in the end I was disappointed. Maybe because it didn't have any obvious point to it, and if it did, then it wasn't very well explained. So, it is not a dire book, but it is average. Maybe it was all written a bit too fast, and perhaps there is the 'in-depth' version yet to come. I will probably buy it as well!

If you want to make your own mind up then you can buy it at amazon.co.uk or amazon.com