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hallyally

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first registered 12.05.08

last online 10 days ago

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about me

Being a serial dancer, I fit in writing whenever I'm not flitting around in ballet or tap shoes.
I'm also an Art History fanatic, fed by my travels round Europe.

UNEASY RIDER - CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT TRAVELLER is now published and available on Amazon here:
http://bit.ly/uneasyrider
or in the US: http://amzn.to/bjkMOh
and is also a Kindle download:
http://amzn.to/dLjgpP

For this reason, the entire book is no longer on Authonomy, though the tempting list of chapters will tell you what you are missing!

From the HarperCollins review:
"Uneasy Rider is such a great read at this time of year! It’s a wonderful combination of travel writing meets holiday diary meets nostalgia/whimsy. You have a very readable tone with a light touch of humour and wit and a very visual style of writing. You make it seem easy! And your tellings of adventures with the obligatory theft in Rome, continental camp sites, self-catering from a van and more feel very fresh and not the standard ‘a Brit abroad’. Plus I feel they appeal to all ages – both the child and adult in us all."


I have now uploaded a rough draft of the sequel to 'Uneasy Rider - Confessions of a Reluctant Traveller': 'Ms. Potter and the Mathematicians' Rabbit - Random Adventures as Allie Goes Up North'. It tells of a trip round mainland Britain in the same old campervan.
If you enjoy Bill Bryson, I think you'll like my books too!

I also have a memoir/social history on Authonomy about a post-war childhood.
This is now a Kindle download:
http://amzn.to/ApuTAu

favourite books

Non-Fiction

As I Walked out one Midsummer Morning - Laurie Lee
Cider with Rosie - Laurie Lee
Clear Water Rising - Nicolas Crane
The Medici - Paul Strathern
The Yellow House - Martin Gayford
Brunelleschi's Dome - Ross King
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling - Ross King
Anything by Bill Bryson!
Telling Tales - Alan Bennett
84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
Adventures on the High Teas - Stuart Maconie

Fiction

Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith
The Balkan Trilogy - Olivia Manning
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
The Diary of a Provincial Lady - E.M. Delafield
P.G. Wodehouse - Jeeves & Wooster books
E.F. Benson - Mapp & Lucia books
Any Anthony Trollope
Any Charles Dickens
Any Thomas Hardy especially Tess
Ditto Jane Austen - of course!
Nearly forgot......George Elliot esp Middlemarch - the greatest novel ever written.

When We Were Very Young - A.A. Milne - my earliest favourite

my websites

http://campervantraveller.weebly.com/     http://bit.ly/uneasyrider

HarperCollins is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Self-publish with CreateSpace

my books

To Set My Feet A-Dancing

Alison Sommerville

Scenes from a post-war childhood.


Well-observed and often funny, 'To Set My Feet A-Dancing' is nostalgic, harking back to a simpler time when children could safely stretch a skipping rope across the middle of the road and stay in the park until dark.

Trolley-buses and steam trains were having their swansong, but the 'baby boomers' were lucky enough to experience them still.

This was the era which heralded the creation of the NHS, the abolition of National Service and the coming of Rock & Roll.
A charmed generation, they missed the second world war, enjoyed the benefits of peace and became teenagers in the 'swinging sixties'.

The title is from a popular song of the time by Petula Clark. The book cover features the author's moment of tabloid fame!

Now a KIndle download:
http://amzn.to/ApuTAu

For this reason only part fo the book is on Authonomy.

Cover by SHEENA IGNATIA

 

Uneasy Rider - Confessions of ....

Allie Sommerville

The antidote-to-travel book! A European Odyssey where brakes fail on mountain passes ... a witch curses ... Germans travel in a Tardis.


Ever thought a trip around Europe in a second-hand campervan would be fun? Then this has been written for you. If not, just enjoy the ups and downs of the ride.
Along the way, discover how to avoid getting robbed in Rome - twice - and why it's not a good idea to take a camper-van into an Andalucian white town.

‘Uneasy Rider’ takes a humorous and wry view of independent travel. Unlike most travel writers, Allie tells it like it is.

Adventure has never been our heroine’s middle name, and travelling hundreds of miles in an unreliable vehicle doesn't help. With her imagination often in overdrive, luckily situations aren't always as bad as they seem, but when things really do go wrong, somehow her level-headed Other Half always manages to sort things out.

This is a collection of sometimes harrowing, but always entertaining tales, experienced over several years during times of so-called ‘relaxation’.
'Uneasy Rider' is a book everyone who reads enjoys - not just campervan enthusiasts!

Cover: BRADLEY WIND

Review on Amazon: http://bit.ly/uneasyrider
"...probably the most entertaining 'factual' book I have ever read"

Now also available on Kindle

 

Ms Potter & The Mathematicians....

Allie Sommerville

What better way to discover your home country than travel the length of it in three weeks in a campervan? Allie can think of several...


Following some nerve-racking road trips abroad as chronicled in Uneasy Rider - Confessions of a Reluctant Traveller, this time Our Heroine takes to the road with her trusty Other Half to sample the delights of mainland Britain.

Fortunately their not-so-trusty campervan decides it prefers home-ground to abroad, but unfortunately there's not always a warm welcome at campsites on the way Northwards to Scotland.

Seeking out those places linked to her literary and artistic heroes, Allie is cajoled into a private viewing of priceless art-works, can't stop herself leaving a banal comment in a visitor's book and becomes Bonnie-Prince-Charlied-out in the Highlands. She is not surprised however, that Blackpool in the pouring rain at 8.30 in the morning really is the pits.

Join Allie, the slightly easier traveller, through the heart of Britain, as she realises the weather is better down South and it's cold up North.

NB:This is a work in progress, hence the final two chapters are repeats!

 

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latest

Andrew Hughes wrote 10 days ago

Hi Alison, “Informers and blackmailers, phrenologists and dissecti....

Razaka wrote 53 days ago

Hello , My compliment to you and your entire household. I am Ibrah....

KirkH wrote 117 days ago

Hi Alison, I hope you can get a chance to read parts of my college c....

micksands wrote 124 days ago

Gourmet spam SPLIT - an actor with Multiple Personality Disorder b....

bene20 wrote 126 days ago

my name is Benedicta,i saw your profile today and i became interested....

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my comments

latest

I wrote 304 days ago

Now read the rest - more pease!! Just love the points bit! I have friend who 'does' Weight Watchers, and this is part of her mantra (such and such - so many points etc) Your scene in the pub is just great - believable dialogue, characters and attitudes. You've created the right mood here, so wish... view book

I wrote 304 days ago

Now read the rest - more pease!! Just love the points bit! I have friend who 'does' Weight Watchers, and this is part of her mantra (such and such - so many points etc) Your scene in the pub is just great - believable dialogue, characters and attitudes. You've created the right mood here, so wish... view book

I wrote 305 days ago

Just lovin' this! Seems that office life has not changed since I worked in one (too long ago to reveal when). Looking forward to reading the rest of this, but had to back it straight away. Allie (ps Loved the fact that someone thinks you are 'new' here!) view book

I wrote 449 days ago

My sort of book! And the first I've backed for some time. Viva Non Fiction! Good luck in all you do. Allie (Uneasy Rider - Confessions of a Reluctant Traveller/Allie Up North) view book

I wrote 452 days ago

Thanks Joanne. It's really just a first draft, and no-where near complete, but I just thought I'd put it on! view book

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