The book follows each of his seven trips made for the BBC, consisting of both his text and of many photographs to illustrate the trip. Most of the pictures in this book were taken by Basil Pao, the stills photographer who was part of the expedition team.^[1]

The book chronicles the journey in five chapters:

• The North Pole to Tallinn - The Arctic, Greenland, Norway, Finland, USSR
• Tallinn to Port Said - USSR, Turkey, Rhodes, Cyprus, Egypt
• Port Said to Nairobi - Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya
• Nairobi to Cape Town - Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa
• Cape Town to the South Pole - South Africa, Chile, Antarctica

The demonstration of the Coriolis effect in Kenya was, apparently, a clever hoax.^[2]

This book is available as an audiobook, read by Michael Palin. There are two versions available. The abridged version lasts 5 hours, 40 minutes and the unabridged version 10 hours, 15 minutes.

Basil Pao produced an accompaniment called Pole to Pole - The Photographs.^[3]

• Full text of the book on Michael Palin's official website.