October 26th, 2009
Well – it is still looking a little messy, but you can now buy both books (signed) from my site. Please note that at the moment shipping costs are set only for the UK and the USA, so if you are buying from South Africa or Australia, please email me so I can adjust the postage accordingly.
I can also add a personal message to books if you would like – again, just email me. I hope this helps out with all those overseas who have been asking how to get hold of a copy…
Cheers
Paula
October 13th, 2009
Well – the media began this week, and so far, it has been wonderful.
I appeared on Richard Fidler yesterday, and I love being interviewed by him – he is wonderfully well informed, funny, and engaging. Today, I got my first review, from the Courier Mail in Queensland, and I am thrilled to reproduce some of it below.
The Australian newspaper is also publishing an excerpt from the book in two weeks’ time in their weekend travel section, so I am pretty excited about that.
I am still deep in trying to organise the Australian walk, and enjoying very much the ride of Sahara. I hope you all enjoy reading it….
Courier Mail Queensland, 11/10/09
Tired expressions like “up close and personal” and “blow by blow account”, even the author’s surname take on fresh vigour in Paula Constant’s travelogue. However, “there but for the grace of God” does not apply, because surely no other female would even think of undertaking her arduous walk throught the western Sahara – 7000km from M’Hamid in Morocco through Mauritania and Mali to Tillia in Niger. She loves the desert – the Big Empty, she calls it – for its variety, its beauty, the solitude it affords her, and the self-knowledge it develops in her. She is taken into the tents and the hearts of the nomads. But the trek also requires handling camels; learning desert lore; selecting compatible, competent guides; coping with bureaucracy.
There is exhilaration, but there is fear (bandits, landmines), discomfort (prickles festering in the skin), severe illness. The trek costs Constant her marriage; sometimes, she thinks, her sanity.
Reaching a town means supplies, a beer, perhaps speaking English and, assuming technology functions, contacting her Australian family. Poised, sometimes uncomfortably, between being tourist and native, Constant observes the daily lives and customs of the Saharawi, Tuaregs, Arabs, their racial tensions, the status of women, political and religious attitudes with unique insight and tolerance and her book is enlightening for everyone. – Barbara Baker