The book to accompany Billy Connolly's 2008 tour of the Northwest Passage is beautifully illustrated with stunning pictures of the landscape and people he encountered along the way in the Canadian far north. As everything is written by Connolly from his point of view it is very much his reflections on what he sees around him, about his value judgements and reactions, but there is probably not a better person to do this with his charming self deprecating wit and his ability to connect with strangers on a profound level.

The book is a chronological diary of his journey, beginning with Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Here he is immersed in the world and traditions of the descendants of the Scottish and French settlers, their music and particular brand of nostalgia for countries that no longer exist and celebration of the Viking connections with the area.

Then he gets on a Harley and moves North to Nunvut, territory of the Inuit granted to them by the Canadian goverment in repayment for years of brutal colonial rule which saw the children of the natives shipped away from their homes to be 'educated' and the Inuit and their towns renamed. He reflects on the Inuit responses to climate change and going from an intinerant to a settled lifestyle and experiences the juxtaposition between the modern world of high speed broadband and the traditional one of hunting and throat singing.

Moving north over the Arctic circle to Baffin Island he boards a cruise ship, a much hated experience but one that does take him through the Northwest Passage and the history of the Europeans who died trying to find it.

He then boards his bike again to travel south through the Northwest Territores meeting the Inuit of the west cost before heading south with a fruit seller in his massive truck through abandoned gold rush ghost towns and experiencing modern day gold panning.

He ends up in the Yukon, staking a mineral claim and British Columbia, spending time with ranchers, cowboys and totem pole carvers, experiencing the rigours of a sweat lodge, becoming inducted into the Killer Whale tribe as 'Prince of Laughter' and watching grizzly bears and golden eagles catch the salmon running upriver , ending his journey logging on the coast.

A stunning book that taught me much about one of the wildest land places in the world, narrated by a charismatic and entertaining author.