His and her journeybooks

HE gender gap is nowhere so starkly obvious as in the popular fiction that provides harmless holiday escapism. Women want a slowly unfolding story strong on feelings, psychological insight, humanity and love. Men want a fast-moving story with occasional blasts of uncomplicated sex without foreplay. They also want tons and tons of information. Indeed it is hard to find a journeybook for men that is not partly a self-help manual: how to manufacture a bomb, get from Peru to Shanghai by the most efficient route, launder ill-gotten gains, take brilliant photographs, chop up a body or pull a curvaceous babe.