Is This the Road to Stratford?

On By Coral WaightIn England

With Melbourne’s lockdown droning on, I decided some form of creativity was needed before my brain gave up the ghost completely.

Writing, I’ve discovered, is something you continually learn about as you go along. And so I revisited Is This the Road to Stratford?, the third book in my Planning to the Nth travel memoir trilogy, and realised that readers are probably not interested in endless hours in a sardine can (aeroplane), endless searching for toilets (a consequence of post middle-age) and endless attempts at saving money (something I’m working on).

Having divested my book of most of this, it’s now down to a mere 59,000 words. Have I done the right thing? I can only go with advice from my good friend, George Orwell – less is best.

Thanks heaps to those who bought the original version of my book and for the lovely reviews. Sorry about the toilet stuff.

In 2011, after several solo road trips around Tasmania and New Zealand, I decided to take the leap to the other side of the world. England provided Dickens, the Brontes and Shakespeare; medieval cities and West End theatres; pretty villages, pubs and chicken and leek pie; a malevolent rental car, indecipherable road signs and terrifying roundabouts.

I learnt much along the way: that it’s unpleasant being woken on an aeroplane by a cup of boiling tea down your front; that you can’t smuggle a bottle of water through security at Kuala Lumpur airport; that you can see theatre in London for half the price of Melbourne, and that you need a university education (preferably at Oxford) to understand English road signs.

The trip threw up many challenges, but for this woman ‘of an age’, it was a great adventure.

To check out the book, or to read the first couple of chapters for free, click here, or on the Books icon at the top of this page.

20 thoughts on “Is This the Road to Stratford?”

  4. Anonymous

    as I read this coral we have just been told we get out of jail wed morning and let loose to shop and have a sit down cuppa or meal.
    25 kms lifted 8th of nov so a few visits to rural vic will be a dream
    cannot wait for your next adventure warmly Nadine

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  8. Congratulations Carol on continuing to learn and refine. It is nice to be appreciated, and successful marketing feeds that appreciation, but there is something to be said for just keeping moving forward. I have done a couple dozen paintings since I retired and only sold two. But the other day, I reworked one I had done 8 years ago and realized the new version was much better than the old. That was very satisfying too.

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    1. That’s so great to hear. I agree with the moving forward. I guess you just get on with your creative stuff because you need to, whether you get paid for it or not. Mind you, I don’t mind being paid for it either. Cheers, Coral.

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    1. Thanks so much, Rosemary. I’m seriously hitting the cinemas and cafes to make up for it all. Also my very elderly father is now allowed out of his nursing home so we’re about to go out for lunch for the third time in a fortnight. Such a relief.

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