Circumnavigating the global village.

Gustav Temple and Vic Darkwood are the editors of The Chap Magazine, a bi-monthly publication dedicated to bringing about a revolution based on excessive languor and dressing very nicely indeed. This is their third book (after the Chap Manifesto and Chap Almanac) and their funniest so far.

The title, of course, derives from Around The World In 80 Days, but there are important differences. Unlike Phileas Fogg, Temple and Darkwood don’t undergo their journey for honour. They do it because they’re up to their delicately plucked eyebrows in absinth and gambling debts, their expulsion from their gentlemen’s club is imminent and a £20,000 wager sounds “wizard”.

Nor is their challenge to actually get around the world in 80 days. They can spend as long as they like - provided they use a different mode of transport for every leg of the journey. Inevitably, this involves The Chaps in some curious modes of transport, including a sperm whale, the Kon-Tiki raft and a sedan chair.

It’s gloriously, hilariously over the top, but the cleverest and most satisfying aspect of this book is the merciless, hard-edged satire. The customs and stereotypes of each continent are all amusingly dealt with, but the primary victims of the authors’ caustic wit are we British: our class system, our sentimentality for the Imperial past, and our persistently strange beliefs about “abroad”.

If it weren’t so funny, this would make for uncomfortable reading. As it is, Around The World In Eighty Martinis is rarely less than an invigorating (if guilty) pleasure. Sam Jordison 14 November 03

Around The World In Eighty Martinis: The Logbook Of A Remarkable Journey Undertaken By Gustav Temple And Vic Darkwood is out now, published by Fourth Estate.

useful link: www.thechapmagazine.com