Revisiting The Trip Of A Lifetime

It’s Week 12, the final week of my look back at my 12 earlier books in the run-up to my new novel, The Godmothers, coming on 29 September in Aust/NZ and January 2021 in the UK/Ireland.

My 12th novel is The Trip Of A Lifetime, first published in 2017, and since then in these different covers, editions and languages. It follows one of my favourite characters, Lola Quinlan, as she travels back home to Ireland for the first time since she emigrated to Australia as a young woman, more than 60 years earlier. Lola also appears in my novels The Alphabet Sisters and Lola’s Secret.

The Trip Of A Lifetime went straight to number 1 in Australia, was a Top 10 bestseller in Ireland and was shortlisted for General Fiction Book of the Year in the 2018 Australian Book Industry Awards.

I dedicated it to a dear Irish-Australian friend of mine, Sarah Duffy, pictured here in Dublin with me, as I showed her the dedication for the first time. Sarah lived for many years in County Kildare, where most of the book is set, and was a wonderful help, as my tour guide, research assistant and travelling companion. She also introduced me to her remarkable aunt Sheila, a similar age to Lola, who gave me so much great detail of her life in Kildare as a young woman. Thank you so much again, Sarah and Sheila.

Now, I’d like to take you all on a pictorial trip around a beautiful part of Ireland. (At a time when we can’t travel, we can still dream about it…)

In 2017, when my book was first published, my Irish friend Louise took it on holidays with her family to glorious West Cork. As you’ll see, THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME had quite a trip itself, visiting fishing villages, playing billiards, drinking Guinness, enjoying afternoon tea, waterfalls, old thatched cottages…

Thanks again, Louise!