Reader Report

These are excerpts from a reader's report from a potential publisher. I have been allowed to use their comments, without attribution (for which I thank them, even though I have decided not to go with this particular publisher).

Very positive feedback! Not too long before you have the chance to find out for yourselves!!

The author has a lovely turn of phrase and at times her prose sings off the page. Both committed smokers, their favoured method of travel was in the (often full) smoking carriage of Europe’s trains, and so they found themselves “a fag paper away from relaxation”. After a severe row, and fearing her friend may not wish to travel with her anymore, Deborah describes how she made the decision to restore good relations and “screwed my pride into a tight little ball and swallowed it”. On arriving home and taking stock of their adventure, they both decide they had crammed too much into too short a time. “It was a bit of a mad dash. Not so much a Grand Tour as a  Grand Prix, trying to squeeze as much as possible out of the vehicle as possible.”

These lovely little nuggets of writing nestle in amongst the vivid pictures the author paints of the architecture, culture and anthropology of the local scene, giving the armchair traveller a multi-sensual taste of the cities the women visited, leaving them hungry for more. Extensively researched, and taken just from scraps of a diary written a decade earlier, the book provides a fascinating insight into the girls’ journey; one not to be read by the parents!

A Tale of Nine Cities is thoughtful and sophisticated, entertaining and nostalgic, and a great memento of an unforgettable journey.

Style points: Beautifully written, this book will require very little editing.  A lot of time has been put into this travelogue to make it polished and ready for publication.