In this series of sixty-two sonnets, he constructs an alter- ego, João, whose travels through literary and actual landscapes are abundant with eros, humour, disappointment, festivals, friends, and encounters with well-known writers. Although these sonnets contain fourteen lines, they are not classical. Instead they read as prose poetry, a form well suited to the sprawling exotic travels they describe. The final section of the book – Memories of Capetown – describing Mateer’s love of his birth land and his father, is particularly moving.