Wish You Were Here by Alyson Sheldrake

Blog tour: 20 January to 2 February 2022

Synopsis

‘I must send a postcard back home.’
‘Hang on a minute, I need to take a photograph of this.’

Favourite holidays and special travel memories are shared in this anthology featuring twenty award-winning and top travel memoir authors.

We all have that one holiday that stands out in our minds, that one break or vacation we will never forget. Whether it is a childhood ‘bucket and spade’ family holiday, the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ dream destination, your first trip abroad or the city where you first fell in love, the memories are still there today.

The authors in this anthology bring out their postcards and photo albums and invite you to join them as they reminisce about their travels.

Maybe they will inspire you to book your next holiday too.

My review

Wish You Were Here: Holiday memories is the third book in the Travel Stories series. It’s a lovely anthology of holiday accounts from places around the world, from the last 20 years to as far back as the sixties.

It contains some fascinating personal accounts and special memories as 20 travel memoir authors reminisce about their adventures. We visit places in this country, as well as Europe (France, Italy, Greece), the Americas and further afield.

The book includes some lovely descriptions, and I could really imagine being in the various locations and wanted to visit nearly all of them! Right from the first story, there were some mouth-watering descriptions of delicious-sounding foods. I could really smell the tasty food, envisage the fantastic sights and hear the array of sounds.

There’s an eclectic mix of locations with people experiencing a variety of life situations and memories – from one extreme to another, with some really unique adventures! What makes it particularly interesting is that we learn about the history of places and the authors have puzzles to solve, as well as intriguing tales to tell.

Wish You Were Here provides a real glimpse of the world; a snapshot of people’s lives with some magical moments and also some rather disturbing experiences. I was surprised that the book stirred up a mixture of emotions and it was definitely a thought-provoking read – it wasn’t all sun and sangria!

Overall, I really enjoyed this! It’s a really engaging and inspiring read and a lovely book to dip in and out of when you’re in need of a pick me up during these cold and dreary months.

The other books in the series are Chasing the Dream: A new life abroad and Itchy Feet: Tales of travel and adventure and I’ll definitely be checking those out too.

Buy the book

Wish You Were Here by Alyson Sheldrake can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback.

About the author

Alyson Sheldrake was born in Birmingham in 1968. She has always loved art and painting, although she found little time for such pleasures, working full time after graduation. She joined the police in 1992 and served for 13 years, before leaving to work in the field of education.

Once her husband Dave retired from the police, their long-held dream of living in the sun could become a reality. Alyson handed in her notice, and with her dusty easel and set of acrylic paints packed and ready to move, they started their new adventure living in the beautiful Algarve in Portugal in 2011.

She is now an accomplished and sought-after artist working alongside her husband, a professional photographer. She has published three books about their Algarve adventures, as well as her Travel Stories series. The first book, Chasing the Dream: A new life abroad, was released in June 2021. This was followed in September 2021 by Itchy Feet: Tales of travel and adventure. Wish You Were Here: Holiday memories, is the third book in the series.

When she is not painting or writing, you can find her walking their rescued Spanish water dog called Kat along the riverbank in Aljezur, Portugal.

Twitter: @AlysonSheldrake
Facebook: @AlysonSheldrakeAuthor
Instagram: @alysonsheldrake
Website: https://www.alysonsheldrake.com

Blog tour

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for my digital copy of Wish You Were Here and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.