Next Exit Magic Kingdom: Florida Accidentally - Couverture souple

Florida - land of pink flamingos, melanoma, the blue rinse, gang warfare and the electric chair - was a place that Rory MacLean knew nothing about and had no intention of visiting. That was until a mistake caused the wrong newspaper to be delivered to his door and twenty-four hours later he found himself bound for the Sunshine State. Abandoning himself to the winds of chance, MacLean stumbled across an alternative Florida, far removed from the thrills of Gatorland, Wet nWild, MGM Studios and Buc neer Bay. He spent time in the Psychic Center of the World, met the Saint of Palatka, chatted to Wanda Flip - the head mermaid of Weeki Wachee - and paid $5 to drink from the Fountain of Youth. His final destination was Disney's Magic Kingdom where Mickey Mouse can be best man at your Fairy Tale Wedding . Next Exit Magic Kingdom shatters every stereotypical image you have ever associated with Florida. Entertaining and warm, this is a story of the places that chance can take you to and a portrait of the many sides of Florida, where dreams can be made as quickly as they are broken.

Rory MacLean's books, including best-sellers Stalin's Nose and Under the Dragon, have challenged and invigorated travel writing, and -according to the late John Fowles - are among works that 'marvellously explain why literature still lives'. He has won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work prize and an Arts Council Writers' Award, was twice shortlisted for the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Prize and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3 and 4. Born and educated in Canada, he lives with his family in Dorset.