Following plans hitched within the walls of St Catharine’s college, nine dare-devil Cambridge students set off in 1961 on the trip of a lifetime after their graduation. Their mode of transport was the iconic VW Kombi van and their journey took them across three continents at a time of global political, economic and cultural turbulence. With the world in the grip of the Cold War, the students moved through the Soviet Union, the Middle East, South Africa and Asia. They meet treacherous terrain and undergo some nerve-wracking, often bizarre encounters.

Put together by Robert Cox, a former journalist and diplomat, Roger Sherwin, an engineer, and Tony Thompson, involved with language teaching, the book encompasses some interesting angles on the group’s experience. It is filled with original colour photographs, which provide a rich visual history of the period, and the book as a whole offers an affectionate and highly entertaining narrative of their journey.