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did I write 'Next Exit Magic Kingdom'? To see if wonders can be found in
a discovered world. To trample the borders between fact and fiction in
travel writing. To see what millions of visitors might be overlooking
beyond the glitz, theme parks and beaches. And to uncover the 10 Best
and Worst Things about the Sunshine State. Believe it or not!
Rory's
10 Best Things About the Sunshine State
1. discovering that the Garden of Eden is 43 miles west of Tallahassee
2. swimming with mermaids at Weeki Wachee Spring (for $14.95)
3. Aunt Jemima Maple Syrup Pancake Mix
4. cicadas and tree-frogs singing in the baking heat of the Everglades
5. the town of Cassadaga, 'spiritualist center of the world', where
residents divine the future and build UFOs
6. Floridism: "Y'all ain't eatin grits in England?"
7. Miami Beach's Deco District
8. small town hospitality
9. narrowly avoiding gratuitous sex on Miami Beach
10. Walt Disney World
Rory's 10
Worst Things about the Sunshine State
1. Florida State electoral Returning Officers (circa 2000)
2. the bordello museum at Yeehaw Junction
3. stripper Tawny Peaks, who was sued for striking a client with her
size 69 HH breasts
4. suburbia gobbling up the Everglades
5. televangelists creaming $3.5 billion-a-year flogging God
6. Wal-mart
7. drive-by shootings
8. designer pretence
9. the Easter Weekend orgy on Panama City Beach
10. Walt Disney World
'Next Exit Magic Kingdom' was chosen as a Book of the Year by Wanderlust
magazine, shortlisted for the 2001 WHSmith Books Awards and read on BBC Radio
4's 'Book of the Week'. In 2008 it is republished with a new preface by Alexander Frater.
'Zippy and fun; it has heart and energy and a restless haphazard charm. MacLean has wrestled the Sunshine State like an alligator and stuffed and mounted it for our readerly pleasure' Louis Theroux
'A marvellously entertaining and intelligent glimpse of the
"real" Florida'James Jauncey, The Scotsman
'Punchy, irreverent and funny' Independent on Sunday
'Probably quite unlike any Florida you or I have seen' Anthony Sattin,
Sunday Times
'Next Exit Magic Kingdom' is republished by Tauris Parke in 2008. It was first published by HarperCollins in 2001.
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to buy in
the USA
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