A whistle-stop tour of the East

For many of us, life has become global. Areas which were previously tranquil backwaters are now hives of international activity. Leisure travel has given us the possibility of first-hand exposure to once very remote places. You don’t have to be particularly privileged or adventurous to go on holiday in January to south-east Asia: two weeks in a western chain hotel plus flights to Thailand may only cost £1,000. The increase in migration to western countries since the 1940s means that many lives are bound up with previously distant cultures — we have spouses, in-laws, lovers, friends and connections of all sorts whose origins lie in different countries and continents.

And, of course, there is the internet, making foreign media and cultural productions available to us in the West, unedited and uncurated. It is quite touching, in this book about different global locations, that Norman Davies takes the trouble to sit down in the High Commissioner’s residence in Delhi with the Times of India and tell us all about the newspaper.