Long Cloud Ride

click here for more details, find new or used items	Josie Dew Our price £6.99 (£9.99) New from £3.60 Used from £4.77 Pages: 352 (Paperback) ISBN: 0751535842 Pub: Sphere Pub date: 2008-02-07 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6213

Reader Reviews:

Weeping Sky (1/1 people found this helpful)

I've bought all Josie Dew's books and enjoyed reading them very much, although in my view there was a little stutter in form on Saddled a Sea, her latest offering, Long Cloud Ride is right back up there with the others. This one was particularly interesting because my wife and I had visited New Zealand prior to our reading of the book. Josie Dew noticed the same things we did, although we were in a car and not on a bike. She was rude about a place we liked, but apart from that.......!
There are the usual quirky observations and interesting thoughts, I would query the cover comments "A cycling Adventure across New Zealand". Josie does far more than crosses these Islands, she explores them very thoroughly. I also question the TLS comment that Ms Dew is "A female Bill Bryson" she is not! She is Josie Dew, adventurer and wit in her own right. She might at times be slightly mad in what she endures, but she is without doubt her own person. Highly recommended!

Eventful Trip Down Under. (2/2 people found this helpful)

A well written book, but I think she forgot from time to time that when you're in a different country, you should have the sense to expect a totally different way of life, and attitudes to that life. A constant attempt at wit which at best came across as ridicule, got very tiresome towards the end of the book. New Zealand's worst summer for many years did not help her trip, and the mentality of the country's drivers regarding cyclists and everything in general, really is diabolical, which also would have made things difficult, but the constant jibes at the quirkiness of New Zealand's people and lifestyle was disappointing. Ms. Dew should have had a more open mind to the unusual side of New Zealand, and the fact that she has travelled so extensively should have instilled in her an attitude of curiosity, interest, and respect for all things different that New Zealand had to offer. She was in the country at a bad time weather-wise which would distort anyone's view of a new place, and it would have made New Zealnd look dreary a lot of the time, but all the photos in the book show beautiful weather!! A little less of the under-handed and snidey remarks at things that are different to what she's used to, and a lot more of a healthy interest in what a new country has to offer would have made a better book. A lot of New Zealand towns are still basically cow-towns, but that slow, country-paced way of living is one of the things that makes the country so attractive. Her descriptions of the things that the local people found interesting and was an integral part of their lives, was a lot of the time, just something to be sneered at by the writer, which I found to be in very bad taste. Here's hoping her book on her Trans-American journey, which I'm going to tackle next, is more sensibly written.

More amazing travels from Josie in the saddle (5/5 people found this helpful)

If you've been to or are going to New Zealand, then you must read this book! If you love cycling or travel writing, I think you'll really enjoy reading this too. (If you're already a Josie Dew fan you'll understand that once you've read one of her books, you'll want to read them all.) Josie is very witty and all her observations on NZ ("enn zed") are wonderful and on reading this book, so many memories came alive for me once again. I really can't praise this book highly enough. All the little drawings and maps are great too! Enjoy!

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