In the Guardian Ian Birrell reviews Noo Saro-Wiwa's travelogue:
More here...as she gets to grips with the pace of this unruly giant of a country, jumping onto lethal motorbike taxis, squeezing into overcrowded buses and traipsing round shabby hotels with their drunken managers, outdated furnishings and intermittent water supplies, she ends up performing a valuable service. For in her gentle style, she peels away many of the cliches that envelop Nigeria and reveals both the beauty and brutality of this slumbering superpower, which as any visitor rapidly discovers is one of the world's most exasperating yet exhilarating nations.
So while venal leaders rip off billions from state coffers, museum chiefs flog off ancient artefacts and endless hustling fills the streets, people can leave front doors unlocked and bags unattended on minibuses. "Nobody stole our things, not even the street kids who swarm around vehicles in northern towns to beg for food and money," she writes. Throughout Nigeria, Saro-Wiwa encounters decency, humour, resilience and vast reserves of that famed energy.
