The Dark Tourist: Sightseeing in the World’s Most Unlikely Holiday Destinations

‘Dark tourism is the act of travel and visitation to sites, attractions and exhibitions which have real or recreated death, suffering or the seemingly macabre as a main theme’

Since living in war-torn Lebanon during his childhood, comedian and TV presenter Dom Joly has always been fascinated with travelling to places that are quite a way off the beaten track.  In this highly entertaining book Dom takes us on his journeys to those places on his own “Dark Tourism” list.

We start in Iran, where the supposed Axis-of-Evil country has some amazing ski-slopes and a young people who refer to their illicit alcohol as “Pizza”.  Of course even having the stamp of Iran in his passport gives Joly headaches whenever he enters the US and has to endure the incredulous US customs officers.

Travelling across America Joly gets chased out of the Book Depository museum after taking a picture of where Lee Harvey Oswald apparently shot JFK from – unfortunately that picture doesn’t make it to the book – before touching on Elvis’ house where the toilets are off-limits, and through to Ground Zero in New York.

The Killing Fields of Cambodia are rightly chilling and Joly manages to juxtapose the sickening depravity that once took place in the area, with meetings with those who are attempting to make money from that history.  A visit to Chernobyl and surrounding areas is tense with the dangers of radiation poisoning and poignant at entering towns that have been empty since the nuclear accident but are still recognisable by Joly via videogames.

North Korea is one of the most interesting as so little information is known about the country and it is difficult to work out what of that little information is genuine or just propaganda against another arm of the Axis-of-Evil.  Joly manages to not only convey the otherworldliness of the culture but also the individuality-grinding tedium of the regime.

Eventually Dom journeys back to his roots in Beirut to revisit those beautiful landscapes of his childhood but also to find out more about whether he went to school with Osama Bin Laden.

Dark Tourism is a perfectly balanced book that gives you information, humour and occasional confusion as Dom Joly becomes the High Priest of Dark Tourists.