Next Exit Magic Kingdom: Florida Accidentally - Hardcover

Fast, taut, sharp, seriously funny and wonderfully observed, a book that reveals with terrific verve the weirder and more wonderful aspects of the Sunshine State. Rory Maclean had hoped to get through life without ever visiting Florida. Then one day the Daily Mail is delivered to his house by mistake. Twenty-four hours later he is in the land of Mickey Mouse, gull-wing Thunderbirds and eternal youth. He discovers the Garden of Eden, communes with the hereafter and narrowly avoids gratuitous sex. He swims alongside mermaids, meets the granddaughters of slaves and shares Marshmallow Bunnies with Florida's last remaining monks. And along the way he considers the role chance plays in our lives, and how American dreams might seem to come true under the swaying palms of Florida. Next Exit Magic Kingdom is a journey to find the soul of the Sunshine State - a place at once kooky and dangerous, superficial and sincere, sensationalist, bland and dumb - which will warm even Mickey's plastic heart. Stalin's Nose showed Rory Maclean's ability to write superb black comedy, and now he aims fullbloodedly for the mainstream with an outstanding book on one of the world's most popular holiday destinations, which, like all things American, has a deeply strange, violent and wonderful side. Both Stalin's Nose and Under the Dragon were shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Award. In Next Exit Magic Kingdom Rory Maclean excitingly combines comedy, literary brilliance and popularity of subject to out-Bryson Bryson. 'The best book I've read for a very long time' John Wells on Stalin's Nose. 'One of the most original and innovative travel books for years' Alexander Frater on The Oatmeal Ark. 'I cannot imagine a better book on the beauty and terror of Burma. Read it, read it, read it.' Fergal Keane on Under the Dragon.