You might be fooled into thinking this book is a collection of stories about wild creatures, and Caroline Jaine does describe encounters with baboons, crocodiles, angry elephants, invading hornets, and has a close call with cobras. She is still unsure if she ever found tigers - but this is not a book about a search for big cats.

It is a book that describes Sri Lanka as a "glorious tropical island, full of howling ghosts" and Pakistan as home to the most hospitable of people, Iraq delivers spiritual enlightenment and Israel offers the ideal place to grieve. Although the author has visited some dark and dangerous places, this collection is not a catalogue of war stories, nor is it a travel guide. Caroline never describes herself as a tourist - except maybe in New York City, where she very nearly gets held up at knife point for a dollar.

Although the context of these stories may span the globe, these stories are much more about love, loss and laughter as they are about going places. Caroline's "curious places" are instead more a state of mind - an openness of being.