My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It’s taken me a while to read this book, but I’ve really enjoyed dipping in and out of it. Sue Bavey’s mother was a ‘ten-pound Pom ‘ back in the early sixties when it was possible to go to Australia for this bargain price as long as you stayed for two years. Elizabeth Isle used the time to explore the Antipodes, working as she went.
Sue Bavey has compiled and edited the letters and diaries her mother wrote into an engaging memoir that, along with her photos, gives readers today a fascinating view into how life was lived ‘down under’ at that time. Lively and fun, Elizabeth made sure she saw and experienced as much as possible, from the nightlife in the big cities to farms in remote areas with no electricity or mod cons. A great read!
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I love Wales, and Pembrokeshire in particular, so I had to snap this book up. In truth, there’s not all that much about one of my favourite parts of the UK, but this short memoir of a couple who let part of their Welsh home out to holiday makers is fascinating and funny. As the saying goes, there’s nowt so queer as folk, and Judith Barrow reveals how in her own pithy style.
They had a wide variety of guests staying in the apartment they converted and her stories give credence to the other saying that truth is stranger than fiction. Even Judith and her husband couldn’t quite believe what some of their guests got up to. I can imagine their patience was tested to breaking point at times, but Judith Barrow’s understated humour is both witty and wry and I laughed as much as I gasped.
Highly recommended.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I read and thoroughly enjoyed Dawn Fallon’s first memoir, Confessions of a VAT Inspector, so I was delighted to be asked to Beta read Globetrotting with Disabled Don. Dawn’s husband is Don, and he suffers from spina bifida, a disability they both manage with humour and practical good sense. But there’s no doubt that their love travel is a challenge, often resulting in difficult, chaotic and sometimes very funny situations.
I love Dawn Fallon’s style and sense of fun and laughed so much at all her little asides. She comes across as lovely, human, funny and kind. She is also admirably patient taking incredibly difficult situations in her stride and with only minimal grumbling, most of which is humorous anyway. Her husband is a wonderfully positive and optimistic person, but this in itself can result in problems. On the other hand, Dawn is delightfully curious, so this book about their various adventures abroad and at home is full of fascinating nuggets of information gold.
I loved reading about how they managed, what they enjoyed and what dramas they encountered and survived. In fact, I have read this book twice and loved it both times. Very highly recommended.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The best thing about this book is that it has taught me more about what it’s like to live in Australia than almost anything else I’ve read. Steve Malins goes into detail about how he and his new wife find and buy their first home, how he finds work and what he does as a volunteer for the fire service. With his family growing, he describes their lives and their holidays taking me to places in Australia I will probably never see. This was a very enjoyable and interesting read written with all the lively enthusiasm I recognise from the author’s other writing.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Being a beta reader for Sally Jane Smith is an absolute delight. This sequel to her first book, Unpacking for Greece, is every bit as lyrical and beautifully written and I feel privileged to have read both an early and later draft. After an incident in her South African youth derails a planned trip to Canada, Sally takes us with her on a solo trip through Greece to compensate for her disappointment. Seeking out the ancient monuments that pepper the countryside and giving us her special insights into their history and context, we travel with her largely on buses and on foot seeing the country as the locals do. It feels like a wonderfully authentic experience, every step of which I enjoyed.
Greece has so many treasures, many of which go unnoticed, but with her relish for walking rural tracks others would baulk at, Sally finds these gems of antiquity in incredible places. I love the way she pairs the books she reads on her journey with the areas and towns she visits; I also love her sensitive descriptions and thoughtful contemplation on the issues of tourism and its impact on this iconic land. Add to that the search for the places her mother visited revealed in snippets from an old diary that accompanies Sally on her travels, and this is a beautiful book and a must read for those who love and, like me, would love to visit Greece.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve read nearly all Jacqueline Lambert’s previous memoirs. I also have a taste for DIY so I was especially keen to read this latest book in her series. For once, this is not a travelogue; in fact, poor Mark and Jackie have to deal with the enforced movement limitations of lockdowns in the UK during the Covid 19 pandemic. These restrictions dictate the progress of their project to convert an old army truck into a home and set the tenor of what was to result in a series of frustrating delays and catastrophes.
Written with lively wit and understated humour, the book details the problems, the costs, the issues with the friend whose premises and skills they are using and the disasters that occur along the way. Theirs was not a standard conversion, so it’s no ‘how to’ (or not) book in the sense of being a manual for van build-ups. However, there’s some useful information at the end about materials and products that would benefit others embarking on this kind of project. In the end, the fact that Mark and Jackie kept their sanity and their relationship intact is amazing. A great read, as always and I look forward to more of their adventures.
I received an advanced review copy of this book, but this is my unbiased opinion.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tammy Horvath is a remarkable woman. Born with a wander and travel lust, she was only really able to indulge her love of journeying to far off places when she remarried. Even so, her adventurous spirit was frequently taxed by fears both personal and for her loved ones. This book is a collection of stories about her holidays, both good and bad, and what she learned during and from them. I loved the way she faced her fears, especially her terror of heights and I was riveted by the chapter about Yellowstone Park.Having read her first book, I was again struck by her honest self-appraisal and her unfiltered stories about her relationship with her son. I was so pleased to learn how good and kind her second husband has been to her. She certainly deserves that happiness.
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My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’ve loved both of EJ Bauer’s earlier books and this one was no disappointment. Elizabeth and her sister, Louise, take us on a delightful leisurely tour from Rome to Venice and ultimately to Lake Como. However, the author’s journey begins in Umbria, where she and her brother enjoy a special week of cookery classes in a gorgeous farmhouse, a part of Italy I don’t know but now long to visit. I loved the gentle pace of the journey, the observations on the ‘side scenes’ Elizabeth sees, the focus on the cats they meet on their path and the conversations with the people they encounter. This was Italy from a delightfully personal perspective and I especially enjoyed re-living the Cinque Terra, Pisa and Florence, all places I’ve been to in recent years. Altogether, this is a charming travel memoir to be read and toasted, preferably with a glass of Italian white wine. Sit back, relax and enjoy the experience through Ms Bauer’s sensitively written descriptions.
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I was lucky enough to win this book in a competition on Facebook, and I’ve very much enjoyed my holiday in the British Isles with the three Moore sisters. On the surface, it is a travelogue of a three-week vacation in Ireland, England and Scotland, but it’s also a journey of discovery for the three sisters.
Elizabeth, the middle sister, cleverly weaves stories from their family’s past to explain attitudes and issues the sisters reveal along the way. All three of them carry some extra emotional baggage in addition to their suitcases, and on occasions, this baggage spills out and threatens to topple their ‘sister tent’, as Elizabeth calls it. Humour, however, usually wins the day, and that special connection the three have triumphs in laughter every time.
I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, both in travel and relationship terms. I liked the immediacy of the present tense Elizabeth Moore Kraus uses, and I enjoyed visiting the often unusual locations they chose to see – Belfast was especially compelling. Altogether, this humorously and sensitively written memoir is a lovely read that I can highly recommend.
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Marvellous Memoirs: Reviews and links 