I am now a published author!

It has been a long time since I last posted on my blog, mainly because I have been using my The Long Horse Ride facebook page for keeping everyone up to date. So for those of you who are not avid followers of my facebook page, here is the latest news.

Over the last couple of years, quite apart from catching up with life at home, I have been writing up my travels, or at least the first leg.  Having sat down in front of my computer to bang the keys when I got the chance, I found that 55,000 words down the line I had not even reached the end of the Great Wall of China. Well it did take around five months to cover the 1,500 miles distance from end to end of the wall, not including time out for planning and injury, and this was quite a feat in itself.  The upshot is that my first book is an account of tackling this leg with all its setbacks and excitements, and it is unsurprisingly called, wait for it, 'In the Shadow of the Great Wall'.

As both my cameras were out of action at the time and I had to rely on my mobile phone, here is a rather hazy photo of the proud author with her first copy of the book hot off the press ..


...and a close-up I took on the way home to show my family....

It has been published by local printing and publishing company Gomer Press, and I am very grateful to my talented editor Rebecca John for helping me mould it into some sort of shape.  It is not a literary masterpiece, but hopefully will be entertaining for those who enjoy reading about unique adventures of this kind.

It is currently available on Amazon UK, but also via the Welsh Books Council who do not insist on the same mark up as Amazon.  The book launch is on Tuesday April 9th, and it should be available via good book shops after that.  It will be stocked in the premier travel bookshop Stanfords, and there will be another book launch and signing there on Wednesday May 22nd 7-8.15.