New York | In March 2017, Anthony Bourdain had an idea for a book, but no time to write it. Since he started travelling and eating on camera with the Food Network’s A Cook’s Tour in 2000, the chef, frequent dropper of f-bombs and insatiable eater of delicious things had spent most of his time in the field, most recently for his CNN show Parts Unknown. Mr Bourdain and his team decided he would carve out some time to write in the summer of 2018, when he would have a few rare continuous weeks at home during a break in filming. That, of course, never happened, as Mr Bourdain died by suicide in June 2018.

Nevertheless, this week, almost three years after his death, and after a pandemic that almost completely shut down international travel, Ecco publishes World Travel: An Irreverent Guide by Mr Bourdain and his long-time assistant (or “lieutenant” as he often referred to her), Laurie Woolever.