The characters lack vim. Robert Rind is your stereotypical old-school guidebook hack with a predictable bowel fixation and a personality far too irritating to be sympathetic. Mithra, the young upstart sent by a publishing house, SmallWorld, to replace him is, perhaps intentionally, so wooden that her transformation is unbelievable. You never know whom you are meant to be barracking for.

The story rests, rather flimsily, upon Mithra’s pursuit of Rind so that she can tell him he is fired. When we finally meet Rind, a cliché in a crumpled beige sports coat, he is not sufficiently maverick or eccentric for us to care if he loses his job or not. From there, the plot meanders. We take in the sights of Maganda and meet a cast of inconsequential odd bods. The ending comes out of the blue and is hastily dispatched, as if Looby had a deadline.

In this era of corporate cynicism, Paradise Updated may appeal to readers who lament that there is nowhere left in the world unspoiled by tourism. The novel is amusing, if rather light on character and story. Just don’t take it on your next package holiday.