Book excerpt: A fascinating exploration and insight into the fringes of Europe. This book proudly celebrates the richness and cultural history of these countries, taking us through Moslem Spain, Byzantine Turkey and Viking Norway, for example, yet it also offers an intriguing insight into the travails and high points of travelling itself. Peppered with slightly eccentric anecdotes and poems, the book wakes up the people and places of Europe's fringes and gives them a gentle shake.