Spanish steps : travels with my donkey

Being larger than a cat, the donkey falls into that category of animal which Tim Moore is at least slightly scared of.

Yet intrigued by epic accounts of a pilgrimage undertaken by one in three medieval Europeans, and strangely committed to historical authenticity, he finds himself leading a Pyrenean ass named Shinto into Spain, headed for Santiago de Compostela.

Nuzzling businessmen at a city-centre zebra crossing, or shuffling after German policewomen across a broiled and lonely plain, the pair bring smiles to every local face, and not all of brazen derision.

Over 500 miles of extreme weather, agonising bestial sloth and triple-bunk dormitories, it becomes memorably apparent that for the multinational band of eccentrics who keep the Santiagan flame alive, the pilgrimage has evolved from a purely devotional undertaking into a mobile therapist's couch.

Ludicrous, heart-warming and improbably inspirational, "Spanish Steps" is the story of what happens when a rather silly man tries to walk all the way across a very large country, with a very large animal who doesn't really want to.