The White Umbrella by Brian Sewell is the Mac and Cheese of books. Feel good, wholesome, a heartwarming 170 page joyride. It's a travelogue, a tale of friendship, a story where history and geography, food and culture vividly enmesh in a road trip that spans across Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, France and finally England.

If you've been missing a bit of travelling, this little gem will take you across mountains and farm lands, bustling Silk Route towns and market places, passport free. 

The story is about an eccentric television presenter called Mr. B who lands up in Peshawar to shoot with his crew and chances upon an injured baby donkey, bleeding by the roadside. What happens next will restore your faith in humanity. 

Mr. B befriends the donkey who he lovingly names Pavlova, for her long legs and dainty gait which remind him of a famous Russian ballerina. He wants to take Pavlova back home to England. Flying back is out of question because the crew's tickets are booked for the next day. So Mr. B decides to hike from Peshawar to England. 

You've been warned, Mr. B is eccentric. 

On the way, Pavlova and Mr. B meet an interesting cast of characters. 

A kind pharmacist in Peshawar, an inn keeper in Zahadan, a Persian carpet seller, an English man in a Rolls Royce who gives Mr B and the donkey a lift and many more. They spend nights in no name towns, breaking bread, drinking wine and listening to the desert songs of the locals, they savour the sparse fare of a monastery, Pavlova gets a taste of Turkish ice cream and sweets worth writing a love song or two about. They hike to Mount Ararat, Mr. B gets arrested by Turkish border patrol, they smuggle Pavlova in a ferry, across the English Channel from France and eat German 'Cheese with music' before finally reaching Wimbledon 5 weeks later. Where Pavlova is united with Mr B's pet dogs and finds a happy forever home till the end of her life. 

There's a lot more of course that happens in between. 

The story has neither sweeping drama, nor edge-of-the-seat adventure. Yet it is so wholly charming and filled with significant anecdotes of places, descriptions of the food, crafts, music and history of diverse lands, it offers a glimpse into other worlds. A calming, welcome distraction in the times of lockdowns when the four walls of our homes have become our only world.

This is a book you can read again and again and again. The illustrations by Sally Anne Lasson make the story all the more heart warming.