Crystal Balls and Moroccan Walls

With his wife, Sandra, Brian was in a party of ‘Nature-seekers’; amateur naturalists who had, the previous day, flown in from faraway Sussex, and who were on their way to southern Morocco for a bit of desert birding and a bit of African sun. They had now stopped in a village called Taddert for their first “Maroc” lunch, and so far, it had all been a bit... well, a bit dispiriting.

Crystal Balls and Moroccan Walls is another irreverent and provocative account of an expedition made by Brian and his wife, this time to that part of Morocco that lies to the south of the Atlas Mountains. However, it is also a prognostication... Southern Morocco doesn’t live up to Brian’s expectations. So, to brighten the dismal prospect of a dismal trip through the desert, Brian refers to a series of ‘crystal balls’, balls from which he is able to forecast the state of Britain in just forty years’ time.

This means that there is still a consideration of the merits of tajines, a description of ‘fat sand rats’, and a thorough assessment of all those Moroccan walls, but there is also so much more. For example, there is an explanation of how Scotland, by mid-century, has changed its name to Trumpland and how its southern neighbour, by this same time, has begun to sell itself to potential visitors from the Far East as ‘Ye Olde Solde-Offe England’. There is even a review of some of the latest film offerings by this date – such as No Great Expectations…

This unusual work is the penultimate book in David’s seven-part series that details Brian and Sandra’s travels to Assam, Syria, Borneo, Cape Verde, Namibia/Botswana, Morocco and Zambia. It is book number one in David’s ‘shameless subversion’ of the travel-book genre.