That's more about lifestyle [Peter Mayles], living abroad. It's about buying a donkey and house in south France, and that's a slightly different thing. A very popular genre but that's not quite my thing.

I have to be careful not to visit one place right after the other and write one book after the other. Because I fear writing the same book all over again. That's why I am taking a break and doing something different this time.

Originally I wanted to be a diplomat, and by attrition I started giving up that idea.

I was writing the Paraguay book, a Paragauyan told me that only five thousand people in Paraguay read.

It is a gift, and you realize as soon as you cross the border into Paraguay, as I did, the first time in '82, that you are in a sort of wonderland. Nothing is quite right: the buildings, they've got their own architecture, their own language; and everything is just a little bit off key.

I don't want to sell other people trips! I want to be there!

A lot of books are sold and given away as presents. But who actually reads and enjoy reading?