From the immaculate manicure of a geisha in Kyoto and the elegant dexterity of Balinese dancers’ hands, to a Havana street photographer’s stubby fingers and the ragged stumps of an Australian crocodile farmer, this eloquent book celebrates an often ignored area of communication – hands. The renowned photographer Basil Pao, who has accompanied Michael Palin on his journeys from Pole to Pole, around the Pacific Rim, across the Sahara and through the Himalayas, presents a collection of his photographs taken en route, all of which focus on hands. Captions accompany each image detailing the owners’ homes and lives. • Extensive captions accompany the photographs, giving details of the lives and homes of the people to whom the hands belong Basil Pao is a Hong Kong-based photographer, who took the images in all of Michael Palin’s recent books, including Pole to Pole, Full Circle with Michael Palin, Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure, Sahara and Himalaya.