Amazon.co.uk Review
It always seemed incongruous that the witty and urbane Archbishop Runcie should be travelling around the world with a person who looked a big, sincere missionary complete with woolly jumpers, beard and big feet. In his first book, Taken on Trust, Terry Waite communicated the complex, compassionate and intelligent man beneath the anorak. In Travels with a Primate he reminisces on the seven years of his travels with Runcie as the Archbishop's Advisor on Anglican Communion Affairs. Waite recounts various adventures as he, Runcie and a few staff members travel all over the world from Alaska to Africa and from Australia to America. As they meet ordinary people, heads of state and celebrities Waite always brings out the humorous and therefore human touch. Woven into the anecdotes are interesting snippets of history about the Archbishops of Canterbury, Lambeth Palace and the complex organism called the Anglican Communion. Anglicans are better than most religious people at laughing at themselves; and without preaching, Terry Waite manages to communicate quiet trust in a God who is in charge despite the sometimes tumultuous and chaotic activities of mankind. If the book has a weakness it is the sense that Waite is not totally at home in his genre. His stories are interesting and fun, but often the humour is a bit laboured resulting in more smiles than laughs. Nevertheless, Travels with a Primate is a good, relaxing read and manages to educate and inspire without failing to entertain. --Dwight Longenecker

Synopsis
In contrast to his earlier bestseller "Taken on Trust", this amusing book shows another side to the man who was a hostage in Beirut for five years. Yet it retains his carefully written prose and powers of description. For instance, whilst in Scotland, Waite was recognized on the street by a passer by, but the Archbishop, dressed in open-neck shirt, was not. "Come and have a wee dram and bring your friend along too." Every story amuses, and in doing so, the ancient Episcopalian Church of England is revealed in a new light. All too rarely does the Church laugh at itself.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   5 of 5 people found the following review helpful: a humorous and anecdotal travel book, 17 Nov 2000 By A Customer Move over Bill Bryson: Terry Waite's first book was a moving account of his experiences of almost four years in solitary confinement in Beirut as a prisoner of the Hezbollah. How unexpected and what a delight to find that his new work is a humorous and anecdotal travel book written with the verve of Jerome K.Jerome or P.G.Wodehouse. Terry's role, when he was Advisor on Anglican Communion Affairs to Archbishop Robert Runcie, was to organize the Primate's trips to the far-flung outposts of his ministry around the world. Very often these ended in chaos or confusion, like when the Archbishop was nearly suffocated in a homemade Popemobile in a rural backwater in Canada or gripped rather too tightly by a koala bear during a photo shot in Australia. As he trails around with 'Archbishop Lunchie' (this was how