In the year 2000, Irish Times journalist and poet Rosita Boland set herself the task of reading the 13th edition of the Chambers Dictionary from cover to cover, collecting words which delighted her in a notebook. She uses some of these unusual and evocative words as chapter headings in this beautifully written book which documents nine journeys from nine different moments of her life. Her travels have occurred over a period of great change for travellers. Like the Chambers Dictionary, our world has changed in leaps and bounds. Women travelling solo are far more common these days than when she started out alone. There was no internet, no easy access to foreign currency, no mobile phones and of course no digital cameras.
From death-defying bus journeys through Pakistan, to witnessing the majestic icescapes of Antarctica, to putting herself back together in Bali, these vivid and wide-ranging essays draw on her work, loves, losses and friendships, her disappointment in not being able to have children, as well as her wanderlust. Elsewhere reveals how exploring the world – and those we meet along the way – can dramatically shape the course of a person’s life. Read it and you will be transported to a faraway ‘elsewhere’ too.
This title is available as an eBook on BorrowBox: https://bit.ly/3pDIW2N