A vivid and richly sensuous travelogue of the author Sam Pickering's year-long family trip Down Under
The movie 'Dead Poet's Society' is where most people first met Sam Pickering, the University of Connecticut English professor. Robin Williams plays the lead character (based on Pickering), an idiosyncratic instructor who employs some over-the-top teaching methods to keep his subjects fresh and his students learning.
'Waltzing The Magpies' is classic Pickering at the height of his literary powers, and places him in the company of such great essayists as E B White and James Thurber, but with an irony and observational prowess that is pure Pickering.