Chugging across the vast Russian heartland in an open 1926 Alvis 12/50 didn't exactly boost Britain's export image—too many Soviet citizens thought the gallant vintage tourer was the latest model! And for most of his 10,000 mile journey, Fred Basnett wondered how on earth he came to be there. When, in a London pub, a companion had suggested the project, between pints, he had dismissed it as an idea straight "from the malt". "I had no driving licence—no money", he says. "My total Russian vocabulary was da, niet, and vodka; I had no burning desire to see Moscow; and I had just started a brand-new job." Yet one bright August morning, with a stomach full of butterflies as he watched the ancient Alvis (borrowed from Lord Montagu) swing aboard a large Swedish boat he ruefully recalled a garage attendant's ominous prediction— "Russia?—you'll be lucky if you make Tilbury"!

In fact Basnett and his compatriot Paul Redfern not only reached Moscow via the Arctic circle, they travelled the whole Soviet Union—returning through Turkey and the Balkans. They tried everything from oven-hot Sauna baths in Finland to a highly ambulant meal in Istanbul, where each course was eaten in a different restaurant. They sold shirts (illegally) to Russian "mods" and spent a week under house-arrest, confined to a railway station in Azerbaijan. Travels of a Capitalist Lackey, Fred Basnett's first book, is an off-beat, hilarious account of this fascinating journey. Fluently written with a piquant, brittle turn of phrase, we learn how it is possible to travel 10,000 miles on a bank overdraft. Although now busily engaged as a publicity chief with a large publishing organization, he still hankers to do a similar journey sometime. But, today, there are additional difficulties—a wife and mortgage.

What reviewers say about

TRAVELS OF A CAPITALIST LACKEY

"Highly recommended to armchair travellers with a sense of fun."

EVENING STANDARD

"The reader is carried along by a flow of witty bombast. . . ."

SUNDAY TIMES

"What a treat to get a travel book that entertains as well as describes."

HULL DAILY MAIL

". . . his book is compulsive as a whisky advertisement."

NEW STATESMAN

". . . makes fascinating reading."

SMITH'S TRADE NEWS