People often assume that Steven Froelich is a rock star, with his flowing blond locks and manic ‘where’s the party at!’ vibe. His Keith Richards-level consumption of narcotics and booze does nothing to dispel the impression.

Froelich has now set his sights on the reputed El Dorado of ‘white gold’. Colombia: Playing with Powder is the latest instalment of his Latin American travel memoirs – a peripatetic trail of debauched cocaine use, furtive transactions in hostels, taxis and bars, and oddball characters.

Froelich’s trademark illiberal rants, unfiltered stream of consciousness and indifference to social or political tensions unpeel the workings of the mind of a true addict; but equally, he yearns for a more elusive substance than cocaine: human connection