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  Laugh until your tent falls down

  This is a very humorous memoir of the authors childhood experiences of holidays under canvas with her hapless Mum and stoical Welsh Dad.

  Beginning in 1970 when the author is just 3, up to her early teen years, every attempt this family makes to have a relaxing and fun filled holiday meets with disaster, many of them so gruesome you'll cringe whilst laughing out loud with relief that its not happening to you.

  After their first attempt at holidaying in a tent together begins with the 3 year old Emma wedged bottom first in the full bucket used as a toilet by the family and ends with a ferocious storm flattening the tent and then almost blowing them all off a cliff in the derelict caravan they take shelter in - it almost defies belief that they continue year after year to set off with joy and abandon looking forward to a fun packed holiday - which eludes them relentlessly!

  From misunderstandings in Cornwall to food poisoning in France this book is fraught with mishaps and misadventure and re-creates an era of the recent past, the 1970s, vividly.

  I took it on holiday over Easter weekend and read it in 3 days tucked cosily inside my caravan (I'd have been the envy of Emma and family who viewed caravans as the Rolls Royces of camping, from beneath their mouldy damp canvas) I chuckled and sniggered at the many amusing moments.

  Warning - if you're the slightest bit squeamish about toilet related incidents - this book is definitely not for you but if you're a child of the 70s, have ever camped or holidayed with embarrassing parents its a light and entertaining holiday read.

  Review by Jan Lambert on 13:14, 14 Apr 2009

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