Author Tom Fremantle's 19th century American ancestor Colonel Arthur Fremantle travelled through America in 1863, when the country was gripped by the turmoil of Civil War. He travelled on stagecoaches, steam trains and Mississippi rafts, ate skunk meat, met General Robert E Lee and witnessed Gettysburg before sailing home to New York. His 20th century relative strikes out on a similar journey, aiming to walk the 2,700 miles from Mexico to Manhattan with just a mule for company, starting his journey just ten days before the events of September 11. This is engaging comic travel writing that illuminates America past and present with its uniquely peripatetic method. Like his ancestor, the modern Fremantle beds down each night outdoors, sleeping as well as walking his way across the American landscape. (NR KAT. 12)