Adventures of a Compulsive Traveller

This is a collection of travel stories from Australia and the world, told in a fresh, witty and intelligent voice. 
Qantas News, October 2012

Dominic Dunne has been everywhere and he wants you to know it. From a visit to North Korea (“the heart of darkness”) to more than 60 other countries including the US, Britain and even tiny Panama, Dunne has certainly been there, done that.

The Examiner, 13 October 2012

A wild and humorous ride in search of the famous and the infamous in the world’s strangest locations.

Think Australian, Bookseller+Publisher, Australia, 2012

Dunne is an Australian journalist and globetrotter. This book comprises bite-size fragments of his travel experiences … His great gift is a boundless curiosity. He also tests boundaries. There is material here for most tastes. For the armchair traveller.

Lucy Sussex, The Age,  2 December 2012

‘I must admit to not having read a great deal of travel writing, having been restricted to the odd P.J. O’Rourke and Bill Bryson. However, I think Adventures of a Compulsive Traveller by Dominic Dunne could sit well in their company.

Dunne grew up in Queensland in the 1970s. His early employment was as a cadet journalist for Brisbane’s Courier Mail, and he later worked as assistant to the CEO of Qantas, as well as a communications consultant for the Australian Embassy in Washington (all of which obviously helped him amass a few thousand air miles). Now, he has put together these experiences and encounters into an extremely amusing and intelligent collection of travel stories.

The gift of a good travel writer is to be self-deprecating while at the same time giving the reader a little bit of history about the subject. On Dunne’s many travels, we get to hear of his hobnobbing with Hilary Clinton and his inability to converse with Yoko Ono (she renders him frozen with fear), as well as a hilarious trip to Graceland and his preference for Japanese baths. On many occasions we observe how insular Americans can be.

When Dunne talks about standing on the very balcony in Hawaii where the opening sequence to the original 70s TV show Hawaii Five-O was filmed, you get this tinkling of nostalgia.

Some of Dunne’s stories are so outlandish – like his encounters with singer Nana Mouskouri or a certain liquorice incident with Gene Pitney – that you’ll chuckle to yourself, amazed that these things actually happened. The most touching part of the collection is the author’s 20-year friendship with his namesake: former Hollywood producer, novelist and Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne.’

Michael Awosoga-Samuel, Readings Monthly, November 2012