"Rio de Janeiro is a wonderful city. Truly, its location on Guanabara Bay is breath-taking. This book takes you to 111 places that the locals love and find special. Meet an artist who paints like Van Gogh and is passionate about showing visitors around his district. Travel up to a little church at the summit of the city's first favela, where a charming woman from northern Brazil keeps watch. See how 200,000 believers honour St George at four o'clock...

In brilliant, brand-new, never-before-published pieces, Dave passes on home truths to his new grandson and to his daughter Sophie, who will be getting her learner's permit in 2015 ("So you're about to start driving! How exciting! I'm going to kill myself"). He explores the hometown of his youth, where the grown-ups were supposed to be uptight fifties conformists, but seemed to have a lot of un-Mad Men-like fun, unlike Dave's own Baby Boomer generation,...

Whether you want to explore the streets of Rio de Janeiro or lounge on its beaches, celebrate the culture of Carnaval and discover the best places to hear the sounds of bossa nova and samba, or explore the vast Amazon rain forest in the north, Brazil proves to be an extraordinarily diverse country of modern cities, verdant landscapes, and rich heritage.