MICHAEL Palin gave fans of his epic televised trips around the globe a personal insight into his latest adventure - Sahara - when he was one of the high profile speakers at this year's Cheltenham Festival of Literature.

A packed Town Hall was given a slide show presentation by the latter day explorer himself as he promoted the tie-in books that complement the series.

The easy going yet boyishly enthusiastic demeanour that is his stock in trade was punctuated with echoes of the more manic persona that helped make his name in the anarchic Monty Python's Flying Circus.

For the most part chatty, with the odd serious political observation thrown in, he would occasionally veer off into the oblique humour, delivered in that droning, all-purpose officious voice, that was a hallmark of the Pythons' sketches.

What was unmistakable was his lifelong passion for travel and discovery, conveyed by his references to great explorers like Mungo Park, who discovered that the river Niger, contrary to the received wisdom of the time, flowed from west to east, rather than vice versa.

Park's insatiable desire for pressing on into uncharted territories eventually ended in his death - "which is what I think the BBC is trying to do to me," Palin remarked dryly.

Throughout, the anecdotes were illustrated on a big screen with the excellent photography - or "snaps", as Palin playfully referred to them - of Basil Pao, his friend and frequent travelling companion.

The four-month odyssey, beginning and ending in Gibraltar, encompassed a rich variety of people - Arabs, black Africans and the descendants of imperial occupiers whose genes were now enmeshed with the indigenous populations, as were their cultural influences.

The world was a much smaller place nowadays compared to Mungo Park's time, as his modern day counterpart illustrated, with no little irony.

He recounted meeting one Arab, who explained enthusiastically: "I am Nomad. Here's my card." The business card of the "Nomad" also displayed his website address.

On another occasion, Palin was accosted in the desert - in the desert this is - by someone offering him skiing lessons. It turned out to be some sort of sand skiing venture, albeit one using Alpine skis. No Michael Palin travelogue would be complete without him eating something fairly disagreeable that had dire consequences for this digestive system and Sahara was no different.

This time, the culprit was camel liver. Palin felt compelled to eat it, despite his misgivings, as he did not have the heart to offend the Arab woman who had been such a generous hostess. Ever the obliging Englishman abroad.

Michael Palin' s series, Sahara, is currently running on BBC 1 on Sunday nights. Books accompanying the series are available in bookshops.