VETERAN cult film director John Waters is the first to admit that a book about hitch-hiking isn't the most inspirational of synopses.

In the prelude to his non-fiction work about travelling for free across America from east coast to west, the 68-year-old muses upon this idea, and then draws back the curtain to reveal that the first two thirds of the book will be fictional.

Split into two novellas, he fantasises about the very best things that could possibly happen to him on the journey (beginning with a drug dealer and super-fan giving him five million dollars with no strings attached in order to fund his next movie), then he worries about the very worst possibilities on his not-yet-taken road trip.

The reality follows the fiction.

Some reviewers claim this book is for die-hard Waters fans only, but I have never seen a John Waters film, Hairspray included - just short clips of madness and surreal humour - yet I found this to be one of the most inventive, laugh-out-loud books I've read in a long time.

8/10
Review by Lewis Young