title: Bad Trips: A Sometimes Terrifying, Sometimes Hilarious Collection of Writing on the Perils of the Road
author: Keath Fraser
description: Half the pleasure of reading the stories collected together in <i>Bad Trips</i>, an anthology of travel writing, is imagining the authors so wonderfully out of place! Picture Indian author Anita Desai in wintry Norway or proper British writer Jonathan Raban in a seamy Louisiana pool hall. Italian semiotician Umberto Eco in Southern California? David Mamet in the Caribbean? Before you've even started, you know it's going to be good. The stories range from laugh-out-loud funny (Martin Amis on the start of a harrowing flight from London: "When it comes to flying, I am a nervous passenger but a confident drinker and Valium-swallower. And although I wasn't exactly goosing the stewardesses or singing 'Viva Espana'... I was certainly in holiday mood....") to the poignant. (James Trevor describing his worst journey, the trip he took back to an Irish boarding school when he was 12: "By the time we reached Bunclody the odour of long-boiled cabbage that hung about the school's kitchen and dining room was beginning to mingle with the bus's exhaust fumes. By Kildavin, the noise of the play yard echoed; by Tullow, Monsieur Bertain was striking the blackboard in a fury. 'Tell us why, if you would,' the sarcastic science master invited in Rathvilly. 'Tell us why you lack intelligence.'")
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  THE
  
  SPIRIT
  
  ROAD
  
  BOOK ONE OF
  
  THE WILDERNESS SERIES
  
  BY
  
  IAN FRASER
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  > The Spirit Road
  
  > Book One of
  
  > The Wilderness Series
  
  > This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either
  > are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
  > resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is
  > entirely coincidental.
  
  Copyright © 2020 by Ian Fraser
  
  > All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any
  > manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use
  > of quotations in a book review. For more information, email:
  
  > ian@ianfraserwriting.com
  
  Cover design by Ian Fraser
  
  Original Images by Michael Seibt & Rich B Clark on Pixabay
  
  [www.ianfraserwriting.com](https://www.ianfraserwriting.com/free-story.html)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  PRAISE
  
  FOR
  
  IAN FRASER
  
  ![](images/00002.jpg)
  
  "This book had me from the outset. Brilliantly written with excellent
  descriptive text."
  