Pump Up Your Book is pleased to bring you Alistair McGuiness’ Round the Bend virtual book tour September 2-26!

Title: Round the Bend: From Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, a Search for Life After Redundancy

Author: Alistair McGuiness

Publisher: Matador

Pages: 256

Genre: Travel

Format: Paperback; Kindle

From the Amazon to the Andes and Kilimanjaro to Cape Town. This adventure story captures the reality and exhilaration of leaving home to undertake Gap Year travel in South America, Africa, Fiji and Australia.

Three things happened simultaneously. The lioness charged, Alistair fled across the parched savannah and his wife screamed for him to run faster. Stuffed deep inside his tattered rucksack was a guidebook containing advice on what to do in wildlife emergencies, which he planned to read if he survived the next thirty seconds. Future plans to climb Kilimanjaro, teach English in the Amazon and live in Australia were temporarily forgotten as he turned to face the pouncing lioness, thinking back to the words of advice from his mother-in-law. “Don’t do anything silly, and look after Francine.” From deep underground in a remote Bolivian mine to the scorched Australian outback, Round the Bend is an adventure travel story. It explores the turbulence of redundancy, the excitement of travel, the anguish of leaving home and the challenges of starting a new life in Australia.

For More Information

• Round the Bend: From Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, a Search for Life After Redundancy is available at Amazon.
• Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
• Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.

Alistair McGuiness grew up in the UK in a town called Luton, which lies 30 miles north of London. Family holidays were spent in County Donegal, Ireland, staying with his Grandmother in their large family home where she had once raised fifteen children.

It was these annual trips that made Alistair realise his Great Uncles were Seanachaís (Irish story tellers). After a few pints of Guinness in the family bar, brothers Barney and Francis would entertain the evening crowds with their recitations of life in rural Ireland. As their rustic voices carried across the crowded room, Alistair would watch and listen as the animated tales mesmorised the overseas visitors.

44 countries and four decades later, Alistair now calls Australia home and in the tradition of Great Uncles Barney and Francis, loves to recite stories. He lives between the beach and the forest with his wife, two young boys and a fun puppy called Peppi. After decades of adventurous escapades Alistair is calming down and has decided to write more and bungee jump less!

He works as a Business Improvement Specialist and has just spent three years as a fly in fly out employee at a remote iron ore mine site in Western Australia. As a trainer and facilitator, he has worked in Europe and Australia and is passionate about helping people and organisations to become successful.

A fun family day for Alistair would be fishing from the local jetty with his boys, taking the puppy for a walk along the beach at sunset and cooking a scrumptious curry in the evening with his wife.

An ideal adventurous day for Alistair would be a days walking and scrambling in the Lake District with friends, followed by a visit to a village pub nestled deep in the English countryside.

His latest book is the adventure travel, Round the Bend: From Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, A Search for Life After Redundancy.

For More Information

• Visit Alistair McGuiness’ website.
• Connect with Alistair on Facebook and Twitter.

Round the Bend: From Luton to Peru to Ningaloo, a Search for Life After Redundancy by Alistair McGuinness

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, this book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. For the most part, the writing style was well above average. In fact, I believe it is safe to say that the writing style was far superior to the content. I found myself intrigued by many of the ideas the author presented, but many times I felt like I didn’t know the area nor the subject well enough to fully comprehend the story. I certainly don’t wish to knock the book. It is essentially clean (except for a word towards the end of the book that seemed completely unnecessary). I enjoyed the pictures, and I appreciated the story that was being told. I just felt that I could not connect with the story in the way I would have like to.

I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was not financially compensated, and all opinions are 100 percent mine.

View all my reviews

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