Into the Never-never

Book excerpt: "After a long sojourn in China, Brian Johnston arrived in Cairns to join his sister on a campervan trip across the 'top end'. Into the Never-Neveris a beautifully written and often hilarious account of their adventures in the remote outback and on to the coast and the cities, in search of the Australia they knew only from tourist brochures and soap operas. The book is suffused with Johnston's growing affection for the country and its people. It is also shadowed by an acute awareness of Australia s underlying cultural tensions. From warts-and-all accounts of casual racism in the outback to unabashed delight in Sydney s Mardi Gras, Into the Never-Neverpresents Australia s burgeoning cultural diversity in microcosm.In his second traveller's tale, Brian Johnston's dry wit and wonderful descriptive powers are once again in evidence. Whether bogged on a beach in Broome, sightseeing in Canberra with a Laotian friend, or speaking with the traditional owners on a cliff-top in Kakadu, he never loses his keen sense of the absurd and his sensitivity to the nuances of everyday encounters."