Why a reading challenge? Well, its easy to get stuck in a reading rut. So this is less a challenge than a framework – to read wider, and use reading to learn about wherever you are living.
Expat Life
Small steps to big change – can cutting down on meat make a difference to the planet?
This blog is dedicated to everything about making wherever you are currently living feel like home. But whichever country you move to, we are all still residents of the same planet. And right now it feels like we are on the brink of destroying it all. Plastic pollution, air pollution, ocean pollution. But when everything […]
Eight Books to Help Achieve Your Goals in 2019
The New Year starts and we are all full of good intentions. Whether it’s exercising more, drinking less, eating better or getting more focussed with our time, most of us kick off January full of plans. And then it gets to a few weeks in. And you remember that January is grey, and cold and […]
Expat Book Club – Our Favourite Books of 2018
2018 was a brilliant year of books – and book clubs – for me. In my non-reading life, it’s been a year of highs and lows with another expat move from Germany to France. But my cunning plan worked! I set up the Expat Book Club because I wanted a book club that I could read […]
Christmas Guests?
What evokes Christmas for you? For me, it’s the smell of mince pies and tangerines and the twinkle of fairy lights. It’s the opening bars of ‘Fairytale of New York’ and the tears that come all too quickly whenever I hear children singing carols. It’s being at my parents’ house with all my family, which […]
Our Favourite Children’s Books – Book Recommendations from Expat Kids
Is there a greater gift than the gift of a book? I honestly don’t think there is. Books can transport us, they can offer comfort. They can teach us about the world and about ourselves. They can be an adventure, a refuge, and inspiration, a solace. And it’s a pure pleasure to give a child […]
Expat Author: Karien van Ditzhuijzen ‘A Yellow House’
Karien van Ditzhuijzen was one of the first members in our Expat Book Club, and I was so intrigued when she messaged me to let me know about the book she was writing. Well, that book has now been published and I am very happy to be able to share more about it, plus an […]
Living in France – Seven things I’ve learned in our first few weeks
We haven’t even been living in France for two months yet. It feels like longer. Not necessarily because the time has flown due to me having too much fun…but there’s time for that! So I thought I’d share my first impressions as a British expat living in France. I wonder how much these will change […]
Expat Author and Book Review: Jo Furniss, author of ‘The Trailing Spouse’
I am so happy to share this review and interview with Jo Furniss! Jo is a member of our Expat Book Club and author of the Amazon charts bestseller ‘All the Little Children’. Here she talks to us about her life as an expat and the inspiration behind her second novel, ‘The Trailing Spouse.’ But […]
The Truth About Moving: Expat Anxiety…Insomnia and Ikea
The last time I was new in a new country was three years ago. I wrote about it, after the first year, and described this initial couple of weeks as having been a honeymoon period. It almost feels like you are on holiday…until the reality sinks in that you aren’t going home. So I think […]