Author Geoff Dyer has travelled to Italy and New Mexico "In the footsteps of DH Lawrence".

His book, "Out of Sheer Rage" is a witty account of those travels.But anyone seeking deep insights into the soul of a great poet and novelist must have left the Burgage Hall disappointed on Tuesday evening.Dyer came across as a likeable, erudite but iconoclastic person.He is the ideal dinner party guest perhaps, - one who will secretly enthral the majority of the guests because of his subtle refusal to recognise common boundaries.Sea food is "vile filth" and "revolting, salty-tasting crap".In this respect, he no doubt resembles his idol, who liked to push the boundaries himself.Dyer, not Lawrence is at the heart of his travelogue.Dyer writes of his visit to Italy, "sitting here, it was my life I loved".Gathering material abroad, working hard, he expresses envy for ordinary people who can only enjoy balcony views of bays, and such like, while on their hard-earned annual holidays.But Dyer's writing tends to slip by like dinner-party conversation, leaving few powerful images behind.

He admires "lovely old buildings and restaurants".

And here's the problem. Where Lawrence sought lasting, meaningful intensity, Dyer seeks the contemporary anecdote, the one-liner.Dyer has paid a decadent punk-homage to his idol and admits to finding Lawrence an absurd and amusing character at times.He tellingly points out that while Lawrence travelled widely to find the natural man in himself, it was only to places that, even then, were not really wild and remote, including Tuscany.But Lawrence's dreams were probably as important to the man as his writings, and the complicated details of his life.In a world of increasing globalisation, perhaps Lawrence's hopes of escape, to a better place, deserve greater respect and consideration.