"Students are compelled to travel; their education gives them little choice." So begins To Visit This Strange Nation, the unexpected journey of one English student who leaves the postage stamp world of his university and joins a travelling carnival in California. Working at fairs from San Diego to Sacramento, he enters the anarchic and sharp-witted world of the hustler. Written with energy, bravado and uncompromising honesty, his narrative portrays the lives of the men and women behind the carnival games; and reveals much of a sub-culture that is often regarded with suspicion and distrust. But this is also a journey of self-discovery; for in the brash company of his fellow carnies, he learns much about the world and his own place within it that university could never have taught him.