Close to a million miles, 72 journeys and 203 countries have been fitted into Albert Podell's life, as he claims to be one of only a couple of people who have visited every country on Earth. Seven of those countries no longer exist. The journeys spanned more than fifty years and were not without hardship, danger, and fun. The adventures described in AROUND THE WORLD IN FIFTY YEARS are those in the out of the way lands, the remote, hard to enter nations and the less understood societies.

Beginning in America, the author first travelled to Canada as a young man. However the first anecdote he gives us, laying an enticing trail of crumbs, is about a Botswana day when he found himself between a herd of aggressive Cape buffalo, hippos, crocodiles and a river. Podell's parents had come to Brooklyn from Eastern Europe and his first foray to Europe, with the delights of Madrid and Paris, convinced him to see the world. Editing travel magazine Argosy, he teamed up with a reporter and aimed to complete the longest land journey around the world anyone had accomplished, in 1964. Their four-wheel-drive journey through chaotic countries was inevitably scarred by accident and tragedy; a photographer was killed by the Viet Cong in Cambodia. The reader does have to wonder at the men's sanity to undertake such a journey during these years.

Algeria, the start of the journey's troubles, provides some cracking stories; camping in what turned out to be a live minefield, having the police chief insist on buying a nurse travelling with the men. Once you've read this far you'll be hooked. Some borders were closed; some cities abounded with thieves and hawkers; some people were helpful and hardworking. And some beach campsites were crawling with leeches and leaping bloodsucking bugs. That's just North Africa. Wait'll you see what happened when Pakistan declared war while they were crossing the country.

Many countries distrusted journalists and searched and interrogated the travellers, while batches of developed photos came back minus the ones showing poverty. By the end of 2003 Albert Podell counted up the countries he'd visited and made it 110; then he decided to go for the maximum. Read the riveting AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 YEARS for an earthy, risk-laden description of how he achieved this amazing feat.