There was I, thinking this could be a quiet year when I’d learn knitting and clear out a few cupboards when, lo and behold, it’s only February and I’m in the middle of Venezuela, on my way to see the tallest waterfall in the world. Now it’s June and I have written up my experiences in this fascinating, troubled and stunningly beautiful country for a book which will be out in September to coincide with a three-part series on 5. And here’s a sneak preview of the cover, just to prove that I haven’t spent the year learning to knit and clearing out cupboards. 

I know some of you may be wondering what happened to the book of the Nigeria series. It was all a question of timing. Last year I had to devote all my publicity time to my latest volume of Diaries, There and Back. Don’t worry, the Nigeria book is written and will be published as soon as the time is right to launch the publicity to back it up.

Another reason I’ve not had time to clear out any cupboards is that I was asked by the excessively talented Mackenzie Crook to take a part in his new series called Small Prophets. If it’s halfway as good as the filming experience, which I finished a fortnight ago, it will be unmissable. Next year I’ve definitely promised myself I’ll take it easy. Although I’m quite tempted by Great Cupboards of The World.

Michael Palin: In Venezuela will be available in the UK in the TheMichaelPalin.com shop and all good bookshops on 25th September 2025.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in Venezuela recently. It’s the hundredth country I’ve visited. (Before I get too smug, there are another 95 left!) I still get a tremendous kick out of going to a country for the first time. And with Venezuela there was the added attraction that I knew next to nothing about the country. 

I worked with the Channel 5/ITN team with whom I’d made three series - in North Korea, Iraq and Nigeria - and for all of us this was a different challenge. Venezuela is spectacular. Magnificent mountains, beautiful Caribbean beaches, exotic wildlife and the longest waterfall in the world.

But it is big - the size of Spain, France, Ireland and the UK put together - which made the travelling hard, but hugely rewarding.

We got back in early March and I’ve have been writing all about my extraordinary journey while it’s still fresh in my mind.

The book and my new three part series will be available later this year. I hope Venezuela will open your eyes as much as it opened mine.

Michael Palin: In Venezuela will be available in the UK in the TheMichaelPalin.com shop and all good bookshops from September 2025.

These two old farts were found at LLandudno long after the station closed. They later claimed that they were on their way to help raise money for a statue to the Welsh Python Terry Jones, on the promenade of his birthplace, Colwyn Bay.

This extraordinary story proved to be true. A Python On The Prom is the name of the appeal to raise funds for the bronze needed for Terry’s buttocks. And other bits. Give now...

To donate and help build a statue of Monty Python legend Terry Jones visit the GoFundMe appeal page.

Get your official A Python On The Prom campaign t-shirt here.

Follow A Python On The Prom on Instagram, X and Facebook.

When I started keeping a diary in 1969 there were no smart phones, no internet, no high-speed trains and no dating sites. Pythons were still just snakes and no human being had ever stepped on the moon. I sat down at my kitchen table, took out a biro, wrote down ‘Thursday April 17th’ and underlined it. I can remember thinking how seriously pleased I would be if I could keep it up for a month, let alone a whole year.

But just a few days ago I picked up my pen, wrote ‘Thursday June 6th 2024’ and underlined it.

Yes, 55 years later, I still write my diary, in long-hand, on most mornings (Never at night. After a few glasses of wine I can’t read my handwriting). It’s become a part of my daily life, like brushing my teeth - though sometimes not as exciting - and I can now go back all those years and relive the highs, the lows, the embarrassments, the things I’d rather have forgotten, and the things that make me laugh out loud. And, of course, the diaries are full of reminders of good times with good friends I’ve lost. Over the last year, since Helen’s death, I’ve found it very reassuring that there is a record of our life together, which I can dip into, and which nearly always offers comfort.

In September I shall be on stage again sharing the eleven years between 1999 and 2009 with my favourite kind of audience - fellow human beings under the same roof.

The show, like the book, is called There and Back, because I travelled a lot in those eleven years. But there was just as much going on in my life at home, so if you do come along, and I hope you will, be prepared for laughter, a few tears, many surprises and some startling honesty!

See you there!

Click here for tour dates and venues.

Though we only came back from filming in November, Director Neil Ferguson and ace editor Eddie Haselden have raced to get a three part series out of all the material we brought back from Africa. And it’s going to be launched on Channel 5 at 9:00pm on Tuesday 16 April.

The three shows have come out really well. Largely because Nigeria delivered some of the loudest, jolliest, most photogenic contributors I’ve ever worked with, and Jaimie Gramston and Ben Crossley on camera, and Joe Morsman on sound have captured the crazy colourfulness of the country quite brilliantly.

I may be biased, but if you enjoyed our trips to North Korea and Iraq, I think you’ll appreciate the openness and, dare I say it, the noise of Nigeria. We didn’t have to find people who wanted to talk. They found us.

Very big thanks too, to our Assistant Producer Lola Arisekola, who typified everything I liked about Nigeria. In our most difficult situations her laugh, which could be heard several blocks away, kept us going.

As with my previous series, I’ve written a book of my travels in Nigeria, which will come out early next year. Great-Uncle Harry is about to come out in paperback and  Volume 4 of my diaries, working title There And Back, will be available In all good bookshops, and a few bad ones, from September. 

Warning: I’m planning a Stage Tour for the Diaries, so there’ll be no hiding place.