Doing the Continental

Sue Flavel

ISBN 9781849239523 on release now

Dotty Lucas is 65 and newly widowed.  Just because her husband bored her for 40 years doesn't mean she didn't love him, or her suburban family life.

 

But, she has no intention of pottering aimlessly into old age.  Now she is free to fulfil her dream of  "doing Europe".  First stop Italy - but is Italy ready for Dotty?

 

Because, Dotty is a lady around whom 'things happen'.  Her reckless sense of liberation, propensity for causing chaos and a late-blooming romance ensure that every day is a riotous carnival which will bring joy to some and grey hairs to her 'Painless Travel' consultant Nigel - who could have stepped straight out of the pages of 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' - and to the family she leaves behind.

 

Rich in charactors, funny to the point of absurdity yet deeply moving, the reader both identifies with Dotty and wishes every family had a relative just like her.

 

Editor. 

"For me, I just loved it - so much so that the tears were running down my cheeks - I read it all at one sitting - it's that sort of book.  Every family should have a Dotty and I suspect many do...."

 

Sue Flavel says:

Although characters and situations are fictional, it was inspired by the occasion my widowed (now late) mother travelled alone to stay with me at my home in Italy. Her eagerness to embrace new experiences and  see as much as possible  left me in state of complete exhaustion. An energetic, feisty character, she exemplified a generation that was re-defining what it meant 'to be old' - despite the continuing unwillingness of the media to reflect or even to acknowledge this.  A voracious reader, she was frustrated by publishers' obsession with youth, and the lack of humour in fiction. It was time someone recognised  that being over 50 didn't mean you were past it or not interesting enough to be the main character..

So I wrote the book for her. Ironic, however, that by the time it was published I was 66 myself!

 

Doing the Continental - ISBN 9781849239523 - can be purchased from all good bookshops at £7.99. or from www.Amazon.co.uk for £6.99