"Wonder Cruise" by Ursula Bloom - Plus Guest blog post - My holiday read

Those who know me really well, know I love two things a lot (apart from My Husband and my cats), books and holidays! Well I am off on a road trip of the USA in a few days time and I wanted a travel inspired book to read that was nice and light hearted, to read on the plane. Who better to offer me a great read other than Ursula Bloom. This is her new book, Wonder Cruise, released on the 15th April. She was kind enough to do a blog post feature for me too. I'll be reviewing the book when I'm home and doing a blog post about my holiday. I am a bookalicious traveladdict after all. Please take a read ........

Wonder Cruise by Ursula Bloom
A witty, heartwarming read with great romantic and comic characters. This warm, feel-good tale will make you smile, and you’ll be rooting for Ann to find lasting love and happiness. A moving portrait of an unforgettable 1930’s woman; Ann Clements will stay with you long after the last page.

Ann Clements is thirty-five and single, and believes nothing exciting will ever happen to her. Then, she wins a large sum of money in a sweepstake and suddenly can dare to dream of a more adventurous life. She buys a ticket for a Mediterranean cruise, against the wishes of her stern brother, the Rev. Cuthbert, who has other ideas about how she should spend her windfall. Ann steps out of the shadows of her mundane life into the heat of the Mediterranean sun. Travelling to Gibraltar, Marseilles, Naples, Malta and Venice, Ann’s eyes are opened to people and experiences far removed from her sheltered existence in the offices at Henrietta Street, and Mrs. Puddock’s lodging house. As Ann blossoms, discovering love and passion for the very first time, the biggest question is, can there be any going back?

‘Brightly told and very readable.’ Woman’s Journal

‘… with every book she adds something to her reputation … related with all Miss Bloom’s liveliness and easy skill.’ Daily Telegraph

‘Ursula Bloom writes in a delightful way, with a deep understanding of human nature and a quick eye for the humorous things in life. Wonder Cruise … is one of the most entertaining novels we have read for a long time.’ Cambridge Daily News

‘Vividly entrancing.’ Scotsman

‘She has always been able to tell a story … Miss Bloom is to be heartily congratulated.’ Everyman

GUEST POST


You and Your Holiday by Ursula Bloom

One of the most annoying things in this life is that other people always return from their holidays declaring that they have spent quite the most marvellous time, and you yourself always seem to get landed with a tragic failure! Either these people are luckier than you are (which I beg to doubt) or they are more untruthful. Nobody likes to confess to the failure of a holiday; everybody likes to brag about the fun it has been and the wild success of that glorious fortnight. But they are not essentially truthful.
If you are honest, then you can probably only admit to one really marvellous holiday in your whole

life. I am not including the ones of your childhood when naturally they were always glorious and always a success. You need more as you grow older, for your standards are higher. I can only produce one truly marvellous holiday (a cruise to Norway in S.S. Orontes), and that is being honest. It hardly seems the qualification for writing this, when you come to think about it, but it is because I feel the tragedy of all those misspent holidays that I’ve got to do something about it.

So here we are!


We look forward to the precious holiday of a fortnight for weeks; we talk about it for weeks afterwards, trying to lend it some of the brightness it never really had, but when we look into our own hearts, most of us have to admit that the whole thing fell very far short of expectation.



And why?

Possibly we approached that holiday without giving it due consideration and forethought. I am convinced that the really entrancing holiday does not drop into your lap by accident; it has to be well planned. Possibly the venture was ruined because, although the place was well chosen and the weather propitious, loneliness crept into the picture, and loneliness in itself will ruin any venture of any kind, and anywhere. Or it may have been the right place but at the wrong time of year, and you went on the recommendation of a friend who had enjoyed it enormously, but had gone at the right time, which you never took into account.

Are you surprised when you really come to think about it? Of course you can’t be.

The key to a successful holiday is to know what you are seeking, and what you expect to get from it. The attitude of “ Really, I don’t mind where I go, or what I do, as long as it is a good holiday,” is quite a fatal one. Here is a questionnaire to help you, and I suggest that you are scrupulously truthful in your replies to each question, because those replies are the stepping stones to a really good time.



What do you actually want?

    Do you want a rest?
    A lively and well-entertained time?
    Do you want complete relaxation and peace?
    Are you seeking lovely scenery?
    Bracing air?
    Relaxing air?
    Do you want to meet a lot of new young friends?
    Or are you seeking older people?
    Do you want golf and tennis?
    Just a country holiday with games?
    Pleasant single companionship?
    Solitude?
    Or a love affair?



The point is that you will never get what you want unless you know what you want. Decide upon your essential need, because if you blind yourself to this, calamity has already overtaken your holiday and it may be utterly ruined from the outset.

So many people go away for a holiday, forgetful of the fact that change of conditions and climate can wreak havoc with the tummy, which immediately refuses to behave. They then fly to the other extreme and make themselves ill with dosing. Never take immediate strenuous exercise if used to a sedentary life, work up slowly to it.

Provided that you have made proper plans, and are taking the holiday seriously, it ought to be the happiest you have ever had.

I hope so.



Ursula Bloom
Bestselling author Ursula Bloom wrote over 500 books (her first when she was only 7 years old), a feat which earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. She also wrote short stories, and radio and stage plays. Ursula was chief crime reporter for a national newspaper at a time when few women worked as Fleet Street journalists, and was also the agony aunt for a weekly magazine, and beauty editor for Woman's Own! Her books are now being reissued in paperback, and published as ebooks for the first time, starting with her witty holiday romance "Wonder Cruise". Ann Clements leaves behind her dull life to take a Mediterranean cruise, where she discovers more about life, love and herself.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wonder-Cruise-romantic-adventure-lifetime-ebook/dp/B01CWCD5UA

www.ursulabloom.com

BOOK TOUR & EXCERPT - Round the Bend by Alistair McGuinness ~ Adventure Travel

Alistair McGuinness

Round the Bend

Publisher: Matador (November 26, 2013)
ISBN-13: 978-1780883908
Category: Travel, Adventure Travel, Living & Working Abroad
Tour Dates: March, 2014
Available in: Print & ebook, 256 pages

From Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, a Search for Life After Redundancy
Three things happened simultaneously. The lioness charged, Alistair fled across the parched savannah and his wife screamed for him to run faster. Stuffed deep inside his tattered rucksack was a guidebook containing advice on what to do in wildlife emergencies, which he planned to read if he survived the next thirty seconds. Future plans to climb Kilimanjaro, teach English in the Amazon and live in Australia were temporarily forgotten as he turned to face the pouncing lioness, thinking back to the words of advice from his mother-in-law. “Don’t do anything silly, and look after Francine.” From deep underground in a remote Bolivian mine to the scorched Australian outback, Round the Bend is an adventure travel story. It explores the turbulence of redundancy, the excitement of travel, the anguish of leaving home and the challenges of starting a new life in Australia.

Excerpt from Round The Bend 

South America is now a distant memory and together with my wife Fran, we celebrate climbing Kilimanjaro by joining an overland truck as it crosses the border into Zimbabwe… 

Our destination was Gweru, home to Antelope Park, a long established stopover with the chance to ride on elephants or walk with lions. Not being lovers of zoos we were apprehensive, but found they are linked to an association named Alert, which supports lion reintroduction into remote areas of Africa.

My first visit was to the elephant keeper who offered me the chance to get up close and personal while they were being fed and watered. Their thick skin was easy to caress and each time I spoke, their ears perked slightly. Before leaving I took the opportunity to hug the smallest elephant. I spread my arms across its mottled stomach and listened to gurgles deep within its bowels.

That evening we headed onto the paddock to watch the orphaned elephants take visitors on a sunset tour. As we moved back to allow them to pass, my elephant glanced over and playfully punched me in the stomach with its trunk. He left a moist imprint on my faded t-shirt then turned and melted into the bush.

The next morning we wrapped up and headed towards the lions’ den for a dawn walk. The juvenile lions ranged from six to eighteen months and the walk is in a game park where abundant food is available, if they are able to catch it. Ideally the organisation would be able to rehabilitate these lions and get them back into the wild with little interaction from humans. Unfortunately the charity needs dollars, so daily walks provide a steady income and a rare opportunity for visitors.

The main guide was a sprightly man dressed in a flannel shirt and khaki trousers. His voice was warm and carried far. ‘Welcome, my friends. This is a special moment for you. But be careful. Yesterday these lions made their first kill and I sense a change. Do not wander into the bush alone. Never turn your back and remember never to run from a lion.’

A thin strand of soft pink caressed distant clouds as we set out with four other trekkers, two guides and five juvenile lions. Initially they stayed close to the guides but as we ventured from the compound their confidence returned and they cantered into the bush in search of game. With no role models to hone their natural instincts the result was a strangely humorous yet slightly sad experience. They blundered after distant game with little chance of pinning down any of the skittish antelope.

One of the females peeled away from the pack, distracted by the low gurgle from a bubbling stream. She slouched low and edged towards the trickle. It created a perfect frame for a photo. I stole away from the group, ducked under a tree branch and moved closer to capture the moment.

While crouching low to create a perfect angle, the deep voice of our guard rippled across the savannah, ‘Bwana, look behind you.’

My stomach pitted. I stood upright and scanned the surrounding bushland. A young lioness was lying flat in the red dirt about fifty metres away, with her eyes locked onto me. I was about halfway between our guard and the lioness. For a few seconds my world stood still. Nothing moved. The lioness looked at me, the guard looked at the animal and I stared at Fran. My heart pounded furiously, but I remembered his advice and willed my legs to stay rooted to the spot. The guard made the first move and sprinted towards me, waving a thick wooden stick and screaming out for the lioness to move away. It ignored the distraction and continued to stare across no man’s land where I stood motionless.

As the guard approached, the lioness charged. For a split second I stared into wild green eyes as she sprung from the dirt and quickly gained momentum. Some primal instinct told me to run.

Praise for Round the Bend:

“An inspiring, enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable story of the journey of a lifetime.  Definitely recommended, particularly if you’re planning such a trip or thinking of emigrating.“-Sue Magee, The Book Bag

“A cracking marriage of travel adventures and challenging life decisions makes for a great read!  If you are looking for inspiration on the direction of your life journey or are dreaming of wild travels in remote foreign lands, Halfway Round the Bend, by Alistair McGuinness, is the read for you!
Packed with quirky anecdotes and tales of jungle trekking, mountain scaling and safari survival, this action packed adventure is woven around real life following redundancy and some difficult decisions to leave family / friends and finally emigrate to Australia.
I really enjoyed the read and must admit that I am just a little jealous of some of the places Alistair and his wife Fran experienced on their remarkable extended expedition!”- Rich Packard, Amazon Reviewer

“A great travel adventure book.  A great read. As well as thoroughly enjoying the tale of the authors adventures in South America and descriptions of amazing places I have only ever dreamed of visiting, I loved how the book was more than just a book about someone’s travels. The relationships, people within the book and obvious soul searching which spurs the author on to his quest for adventure are what made this story a real page turner for me. Can’t wait to read the sequel!”- Lara Clark, Amazon Reviewer

” A heartening, entertaining travelogue.  I stumbled across this as a ‘New Release’ and catching sight of my hometown, Luton, in the author’s bio. I’ve always been a fan of travelogues, and this didn’t disappoint.
The journey Alastair relates struck a chord – I found myself quite carried along with Alastair and Fran’s brave adventure and leap from ‘normal’ life into the Amazon and beyond. So many of the other travelogues I’ve read are by seasoned travellers, but Alastair’s ‘fish-out-of-water’ is believable and endearing, and his relaxed style allowed me to share in the wonder and realisation that they seemed to experience on their trip.“-Craig Fisher, Amazon Reviewer

“A cleverly written book with a light and humorous tone throughout.  A collaboration of thrill – seeking times and life changing moments. Not only is the reader able to indulge in some mind blowing travel adventure they are also able to read and understand the pure emotion and challenges of leaving family and friends to start a new life down under.  This is a very unique novel and a very interesting book and a fantastic read. And what’s more exciting there are more installments to come of this marvellous book.”-Simon Barclay, Amazon Reviewer

About Alistair McGuinness:

Alistair grew up in the UK in a town called Luton, which lies 30 miles north of London. Family holidays were spent in County Donegal, Ireland, staying with his Grandmother in their large family home where she had once raised fifteen children.
It was these annual trips that made Alistair realise his Great Uncles were Seanachaís (Irish story tellers). After a few pints of Guinness in the family bar, brothers Barney and Francis would entertain the evening crowds with their recitations of life in rural Ireland. As their rustic voices carried across the crowded room, Alistair would watch and listen as the animated tales mesmorised the overseas visitors.
44 countries and four decades later, Alistair now calls Australia home and in the tradition of Great Uncles Barney and Francis, loves to recite stories. He lives between the beach and the forest with his wife, two young boys and a fun puppy called Peppi. After decades of adventurous escapades Alistair is calming down and has decided to write more and bungee jump less!
He works as a Business Improvement Specialist and has just spent three years as a fly in fly out employee at a remote iron ore mine site in Western Australia. As a trainer and facilitator, he has worked in Europe and Australia and is passionate about helping people and organisations to become successful.
A fun family day for Alistair would be fishing from the local jetty with his boys, taking the puppy for a walk along the beach at sunset and cooking a scrumptious curry in the evening with his wife.
An ideal adventurous day for Alistair would be a days walking and scrambling in the Lake District with friends, followed by a visit to a village pub nestled deep in the English countryside.
Website: http://www.thecreativenomad.co/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amcguinness1
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/amcguinness1/

Buy Round the Bend:
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository

Follow the Tour:
So Many Precious Books Mar 13 Giveaway & FeatureCrystal’s Many Reviewers Mar 14Bookalicious Traveladdict Mar 14 Guest Post & GiveawayI Feel So Unnecessary Mar 17 ReviewReader’s Muse Mar 18 ReviewReader’s Muse Mar 19 Guest PostLuxury Reading Mar 20 Review & GiveawaySo Many Precious Books Mar 25 ReviewI’d Rather Be At The Beach Mar 24 ReviewFrom L.A. to LA Mar 26 Review & GiveawayDeal Sharing Aunt Mar 27 ReviewDeal Sharing Aunt Mar 28 Guest PostBless Their Hearts Mom Apr 3 Review & Guest PostCassandra M’s Place Apr 4 Review & Giveaway

It's Monday. What are you reading?

Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey

Last week I finished reading Star Gazing by Linda Gillard (see my review), which I had to admit was one of the best books I had ever read.

I am currently reading several magazines as I love a good magazine. This includes "Woman" where I have  sent off for a free Revlon lipstick. I'm also reading my travel magazines, Lonely Planet and Wanderlust. Great magazines if you are a travel addict like me. Oh have I told you it's only 29 sleeps until I go on my cruise. I didn't? That's a surprise!

Adventure of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines

I am also reading The Darkness beyond the Veil by Darren Scothern, which is a selection of short stories of the paranormal/supernatural kind. Not my normal thing but I am quite enjoying it. I also like the short story aspect as it allows me to read one, then get on with my chores and then come back to another story.

My next book which I've actually started but only a couple of pages in, is The Stolen Child by Brian McGillow, which again is a kindle book.  I then have to decide which books I am going to read on my cruise, so I can set up a separate folder on my kindle. Decisions decisions.

I am often amazed at how many books people read in a week. I'm afraid I can manage one at the most, although I'd like to be able to read more. I find that if I read any quicker then I don't take it all in. So that's all from me for now. Back to my reading. x

My love of books about other cultures

Having been a travel agent for 20+ years, I obviously have a love for other cultures, having visited a lot of different continents. I find the African cultures all very diverse and very very interesting.

Senegambia, The Gambia by Lisa Hardy

Whilst in The Gambia, we befriended a local man called "Kabs" who was a Tour Manager for a local independant company in Senegambia. He was so friendly and introduced us to his family, taking us to his home which was a compound, where he lived with his mother, and his brother and brothers family and his other siblings. They were so welcoming despite most of them not speaking English. We took with us a bag of rice as a gift. This cost us about £12 but would feed the whole family for a month.

Kabs and his family

Kabs took us to a local school where we went armed with books (of course) in English for their library, pens, pencils, paper and sweets. The children swarmed round us like bees around a honey pot. They were so lovely and so delighted to see the white people.

Children at Bakoteh school

Before I go anywhere on holiday I buy all the guide books, as I love to read about the country before I go, so I know what to expect. I am quite street wise on holiday and like to take my Husband and I off independently, although obviously being aware there are places you can and can't go on your own. We found that if we went with Kabs or his colleagues, he stopped people from pestering us.

I found one excellent book on Gambia whilst I was in The Gambia, called Tomkinsons Gambia. It was rich with colour and information.

Tompkinsons Gambia

This trip was the one that inspired me the most to read up about different cultures. I have since travelled to the Far East and been immersed in the sights and smells of Bangkok and the surrounding villages in Thailand. I have experienced the poverty in Malaysia. I have seen the way of life of the Aborigine people in Australia, how they eat from the land, all sorts of things we would turn up our noses at. I have experienced how in Mauritius, people of all religions live amongst each other quite happily and the rich live amongst the poor. That was quite eye opening and very humbling.

All in all these experiences have pushed me to read about the ways of life of other cultures. I love to read books like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, where the author, quote "brings to life not only a character but an entire culture, and a sensiblity so strikingly different from our own ... engrossing and completely convincing". If you haven't read this, I strongly suggest you do. It's a book that has stayed in my mind.

 I also love books like Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, about a young girl growing up in Afghanistan. I just wish the author would write more books!

I have just therefore bought from New Books Magazine The City of Veils by Zoe Ferraris. In it "The burkha-clad body of a young woman is discovered on the grimy sands of Jeddah Beach".

Overall I love books of all genres, but I would just say, if you are stuck in a routine of reading modern fiction, thrillers or historical fiction then broaden your horizons and read one of the fiction books I've mentioned. They really do enrich your mind.