Around India In 80 Trains

On the day my brother handed me this book, as though it were the philosopher’s stone, he informed me that it had got his travelling companion through some tough times in India. It’s like the secret handshake of travellers to India – ‘travellers’, you do realise, not holiday-makers – travelling is very different from being on holiday…according to Dave anyway.

Dave, the post-A-level student, is bored of his endless summer holiday and agrees to go to India with his mate Liz, who he secretly wants to shag. By the time they’re on the plane they aren’t talking and the rest of the trip is a test of wills for Dave.

Written by one of Sacha Baron Cohen’s writers, Are You Experienced is one book that must be kept stuffed in a corner of your rucksack – and don’t swap it when you’ve finished it, it will be your saviour when you’re homesick, when you come across trustafarians leper-washing in Udaipur, and most of all, when you’re clutching your ankles and wishing you could stop peeing out of your backside.

Sutcliffe’s wit is so sharp you could cut your curry-stained fingers on it, and Dave’s run-ins with pious Jeremy, Putney Ranj, Caz, Fee, Ping and the Swedish volleyball team will ring true of the many characters you will find in India – and you won’t make it through half a page without laughing hard from recognition, embarrassment or sheer delight at Sutcliffe’s hawk-eyed observations.