Why did I write ‘Next Exit Magic Kingdom’? To see if wonders can be found in a discovered world, and to discover what millions of visitors might be overlooking beyond the glitz, theme parks and beaches. And to uncover the 10 Best and Worst Things about the Sunshine State.

Travel writers capture worlds in transition, fixing a moment of time onto the page. Twenty-five years on from my journey, our world has changed almost beyond recognition. Truth has been undermined by alternative facts, and for many the escapist delusions of the mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs and Walt Disney World are more palatable than reality. In Florida I caught hints of that which was to come – and recorded them in the book – yet even now those days seem tinged by naivety.

Rory’s 10 Best Things About the Sunshine State (in 2000)

1. discovering that the Garden of Eden is 43 miles west of Tallahassee
2. swimming with mermaids at Weeki Wachee Spring (for $14.95)
3. Pearl Milling Maple Syrup Pancake Mix
4. cicadas and tree-frogs singing in the baking heat of the Everglades
5. the town of Cassadaga, ‘spiritualist center of the world’, where residents divine the future and build UFOs
6. Floridism: “Y’all ain’t eatin grits in England?”
7. Miami Beach’s Deco District
8. small town hospitality
9. narrowly avoiding gratuitous sex on Miami Beach
10. Walt Disney World

Rory’s 10 Worst Things about the Sunshine State (in 2000)

1. Florida State electoral Returning Officers
2. the bordello museum at Yeehaw Junction
3. stripper Tawny Peaks, who was sued for striking a client with her size 69 HH breasts
4. suburbia gobbling up the Everglades
5. televangelists creaming $3.5 billion-a-year flogging God
6. Wal-mart
7. drive-by shootings
8. designer pretence
9. the Easter Weekend orgy on Panama City Beach
10. Walt Disney World