Palin’s North Korea journal to be published by Hutchinson

Hutchinson is set to publish Michael Palin’s North Korea journal after associate publisher Nigel Wilcockson acquired the world rights to the Monty Python member's account of his trip to one of the world’s most isolated countries. 
 
The book was bought from Steve Abbott at Mayday Management and will be published in hardback, trade paperback, audio and e-book editions in September 2019, with a mass-market Arrow paperback edition following in 2020.

In May 2018, Palin spent two weeks in the notoriously secretive Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a cut-off land without internet or phone signal which resulted in a Channel 5 documentary. Now Palin shares his day-by-day diary of his trip in the new book titled North Korea Journal. 

Palin describes what he saw of the isolated regime and "his fleeting views of what Kim Jong-un’s officials did not want him to see,” Hutchinson said. The book features Palin’s conversations with locals and he talks “candidly about his encounters with officialdom”. His diary will be accompanied by full-colour photographs.

“Maps, guide books and internet access were all denied to me as I travelled in North Korea. The daily journal which I wrote up every evening was the only way I could record my personal impressions of this eccentric land. And I lived with the daily fear that I might lose that as well. Fortunately we left the country together, my journals and me. And they have quite a story to tell”, said Palin. 
 
Wilcockson said: "Michael’s boundless sense of curiosity, warm sympathy and sharp eye for the quirky and downright surreal makes him the perfect guide to one of the most fascinating and enigmatic countries on the planet."