The current Lord Bath is known for his flamboyant clothing, the murals he has painted on his private apartments, and the scores of girlfriends (he used to call them “wifelets”) he has had – and made portraits of – over the years.

He is also the owner of Longleat House, the beautiful stately home in Wiltshire. Completed in 1580, it is considered one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain. It was also the first stately home to open to the public.

Longleat is best known though for its safari park, with its collection of lions and tigers, monkeys, rhinos and deer. The brainchild of the 6^th marquess, the incumbent’s father, the safari park was opened in 1966, becoming the first such drive-through animal experience outside Africa.

Having heard so many good things about Longleat, and wanting to experience more of what England has to offer since moving back from abroad, my family and I took the opportunity to visit a couple of weeks ago.

I would have liked to trawl around the house itself, to sample the wealth of history and objets d’art on show. But having been subjected as a child to a succession of tours of grand old houses by my own parents I decided it best not to inflict the same pain on them.

Instead we enjoyed a selection of the many other activities Longleat has to offer: a ride on the miniature railway, fun time in the Adventure Castle, an exploration of the Postman Pat Village. Plus, of course, a drive around the safari park.

There was so much more we didn’t have time to see either. Still, we can save that for another visit. And I know our kids would be eager to go back.

Related posts:

1. Wonders of London
2. Living Abroad and the Joys of Family Support

As a kid, my family and I used to make regular day trips to London to take in the sights (my father worked there for British Rail, which meant we could take advantage of both free train travel and his almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the city).

We went everywhere, visiting many of its most famous sights: we had trips to the Natural History and Imperial War Museums, to Hampton Court Palace, Kew Gardens and the Greenwich Observatory, saw Buckingham Palace and the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, had tours of Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast, Madame Tussauds and the London Planetarium. They were great days, and have left me with wonderful memories.

So it was exciting to take my daughters to London last week for their first visit.

With youngsters it’s easy to attempt to do too much – London is such a big city, and has such a wealth of things to see, that you can get carried away. So we tried to keep it simple.

First stop, Buckingham Palace. Brought up on a diet of Disney princesses, it seemed appropriate we should show them a bit of real-life royalty. So we duly joined the hordes of tourists by the gates and admired the palace frontage and watchful guards. No sign of a tiara-ed monarch though.

We then caught one of London’s famous red buses up to Regent’s Park to reach London Zoo. It’s been decades since I was last there, and I only had a vague memory of the place. It’s hard not to wonder if you’re doing the right thing when you see some of the animals in such confined spaces, especially the lions and tigers. But there is the valuable conservation work the Zoo undertakes. And you have to hope such visits are fostering an interest in, and appreciation for, the natural world among all those delighted children. 

And the best bit of the day for our kids? Well, there was seeing the gorillas. But I sense the £2 bus ride just edges it!

Related posts:

1. Swiss Watch

At the time I remember thinking ‘Blimey, that’s the life.’ Writing a few hours a day and then trailing around the French countryside the rest of the time.

Hardly a deep, or unique reaction I know. Everyone thought the same, which was why the book went on to sell so many copies and turned Peter Mayle into a rich and famous man.

What was perhaps different was my next thought – ‘That’s what I want to do.’ Become a writer, first and foremost. And live abroad.

Well, I’ve done the moving bit all right – first to the States, and then six years ago to Spain. But now, at last, I’ve got a book coming out too, which I hope will be the start of an even more wonderful journey.

There is, after all, a certain kudos to being a writer.

Millionaire novelists like J.K. Rowling, John Grisham and Stephen King spring to mind. Or perhaps the literary cool of an Ernest Hemingway, Jay McInerney or Zadie Smith.

And the non-fiction arena is an even bigger market. Self-help bibles, business success stories, health and fitness guides, even cookery books have the power to turn their authors into celebrity figures.

And even if it doesn’t make the New York Times bestseller lists, a book can act as a badge of status that a writer can leverage for speaking engagements, workshops, coaching programmes and a host of other money-spinning activities.

No wonder so many people dream of becoming an author.

But the traditional publishing world has an uncertain future.

There are the big success stories of course, with millions of copies of certain titles – not least the Harry Potter series – flying off the shelves.

Nevertheless, reports indicate that for years the general public as a whole has been reading less and less. It doesn’t bode well for your business then if demand for your product is steadily falling.

Plus publishing has an idiosyncratic business model. For while the publishers bear the expense of producing and – less frequently these days – promoting their books, any unsold ones can be returned by the retailer without having to pay for them. The publisher then has to find warehouse space to store them, or pay for them to be pulped.

In other words, they face all the risk for the success or otherwise of their products. Can you imagine any other business working that way?

So it’s no wonder publishers are keen to focus on what they think will be surefire successes – the celebrity writers with marketable names, and established literary big guns with a track record.

Which isn’t to say new writers can’t break in. Arguably those that are good enough, and keep submitting, will get noticed by agents and publishers, who are full of talented people as keen to sign the next literary superstar as the writer is to be one.

But it’s not easy for the aspiring debutant. And the rewards for all that work are often pitiful.

Meanwhile a mass of mediocre books continue to hit the display stands, largely on the strength of the author’s name blazoned across the top.

But an alternative future is emerging … which I’ll come to in Part II.

Related posts:

1. Expat Book: The Long and Winding Road
2. Expat Living By the Book
3. Endless Summer – The Postcards Tour Finale

Like so many other journalists, I too have been dreaming of that publishing deal that would set me on the road to literary fortune. In fact, my journalistic career was more happenstance than design, a by-product of my early book writing efforts, rather than the other way around.

The impulse to write has been with me since my exercise book-filled scribbles at infants’ school. But it wasn’t until a backpacking trip around Spain with my wife in 1997 that I took the all-important step, and committed to become a writer. And that means consistently putting pen to paper.

I remember it now. Sitting in front of our tiny tent under the pine trees and stars, enveloped in the warmth of a Valencian spring evening, I opened my newly-bought notepad and with a cheap ballpoint began to recount our adventures.

In the 12 years since I have written something practically every day.

In amongst the hundreds of magazine and newsletter articles for my day job there has been that original backpacker’s tale, several novels, a host of short stories, TV programme pitches, and a work-in-progress screenplay.

The investment of a lot of time, a lot of work and a lot of hope. It’s been a long, and at times frustrating, journey. Indeed, given my lack of publishing fame and fortune you’d probably be justified in thinking it’s about time I gave up.

But although the dream of being a full-time author has seemed a million miles away at times, I have never lost sight of it. So I persevere.

Still, rightly or wrongly – and I’m sure there were glaring deficiencies in my work that merited the stack of rejections – I haven’t had much joy thus far with the traditional publishing world.

Which is why for “Should I Stay Or Should I Go,” my guide to the pros and cons of expat living, I decided to go down the internet route by writing an e-book, and setting up a website to support and sell it.

The internet is a fantastic evolution in the spread of the written word. For it has provided the opportunity for anyone with a message to reach out to a global audience, even if at times it can be difficult to get that message heard.

But the thing is, you never know when someone is listening. And that’s when one of those serendipitous events occurred to me.

Somehow Bea Stanford, founder of global network community Inside Twente (http://www.twenteinside.com/), stumbled on my website and signed up for my Moving Abroad-opedia newsletter. Apparently she liked what I wrote and asked if I’d share my blog posts on her site.

Through Bea and Inside Twente my book reached the attention of Jo Parfitt, the author of numerous bibles on expatriate living, including “Expat Entrepreneur” and “A Career In Your Suitcase” (http://www.joparfitt.com/).

And I have Jo to thank for referring me to her publisher Lean Marketing Press, who in turn got in touch expressing interest in my book. As a result, we’re now working together to produce a print version of Should I Stay Or Should I Go, which we hope to bring out shortly.

It’s been a strange, circuitous route to publication – certainly not how I imagined it would occur. Nevertheless, it is an immensely exciting prospect, not least because I believe – and many other writers have similarly argued – that the model adopted by companies such as Lean Marketing is the future of publishing. But I’ll go into that another time.

Related posts:

1. Expat Living By the Book
2. Book Publishing: The Future … Part I
3. Expat Book Publication

Mike Harling - author of Postcards From Across the Pond

I started this tour just as summer was beginning, so it seems fitting to end it just as summer draws to a close and autumn takes over.  It’s been fun and I’ve met a lot of great people, but touring is tiring, even in the virtual world, so I’m taking advantage of that magic we call the Internet to round up the Kindness of Strangers Tour by relying on the kindness of several strangers at once.  In a way, making my final tour stop to ten locations simultaneously seems the perfect ending for it – one big autumnal burst before quietly fading away.

This tour began as a means of promoting my book, but it soon became an end in itself and took on a life of its own.  Very often, I found myself having such a good time “visiting” people around the globe that I forgot to mention the book.  To date, my trip has taken me from Britain to Canada, Australia, Tenerife and even back to my own hometown, ending up here in sunny Spain with Paul.

It’s a fitting final stop, as this is where the book started out, sort of.  My publisher lives in Spain and she was one of the first stops on the tour.  Additionally, Paul has the same publisher, so after I finish this post we’re going to load up the car with Coronas on ice and head over to her place.  I’m sure Lean Marketing Press won’t mind two of their authors showing up just to say, “Hi!”

I have to say, of all the adventures I might have imagined for my life as a young boy, touring the blogsphere on other people’s blogs was not a contender.  But then the idea of leaving my quiet, rural life, moving to England, marrying a foreigner and writing a book about it never occurred to me, either.  I’m glad and grateful for having done both, however, and although the tour is coming to an end, the adventure continues.

May yours continue as well.

Thanks and Good-bye from
The 2009 KINDNESS of STRANGERS TOUR
Visit the Tour Page for the latest Tour updates.

Michael Harling is the author of Postcards From Across the Pond - dispatches from an accidental expat.

“Laugh out loud funny regardless of which side of the pond you call home.  Bill Bryson move over, there’s a new American expat in town with a keen sense of humor.” — Jeff Yeager, author of The Ultimate Cheapskate.

Buy the Book: http://www.lindenwald.com/booksale.htm
Follow the Tour: http://www.lindenwald.com/thetour.htm
Visit the Home Page: http://postcardsfromacrossthepond.blogspot.com/

Related posts:

1. Expat Book: The Long and Winding Road
2. Book Publishing: The Future … Part I
3. Mass British Exodus Waiting to Happen?

But now I’m starting up again with a new zeal … for I have just signed a contract with Lean Marketing Press to publish a print version of my book on the pros and cons of living overseas: “Should I Stay Or Should I Go? The Truth About Moving Abroad And Whether It’s Right For You.”

The publishing contract may not come with a $1 million advance and movie tie-in rights as per my J.K. Rowling aspirations, but it’s an exciting prospect nonetheless – one that, hopefully, will help a lot more people get a better handle on the real benefits and costs of moving to a foreign country, and give them a much clearer view on the right path to take. And if it can help readers towards living the lives they truly desire then I will be well satisfied.

This blog then will record the book’s journey to fruition and beyond, as well as being an opportunity to record some of my thoughts and observations on the expatriate life as they crop up.

I hope it proves interesting – and if you have any comments or questions on the way please feel free to add them.

And don’t forget to check out my website, www.expatliving101.com, where you can sign up for my free weekly newsletter. I’ll also be updating and retooling the site with the help of the nice people at Lean Marketing Press for when the book comes out. So please keep checking in.

Hasta luego …

Related posts:

1. Expat Book: The Long and Winding Road
2. Expat Book Publication
3. Book Publishing: The Future … Part I

But I thought I’d post an article I’ve just sent to my newsletter subscribers, in honour of the events of this week.

Is America The Place To Be?

There’s no doubt Barack Obama’s election as President of the United States is a momentous – if not a defining – event in the country’s history, fostering amazing scenes of jubilation not only in the States but around the world, from Americans and non-Americans alike.

Of course there are millions of disappointed McCain supporters. But given the size of the turnout and the winning margin, it’s evident that Obama’s platform for change has resonated far and wide.

And more than that, the sense I get as an outsider is that there is a new era of hope in the US. (And believe me, the rest of us around the world are just as happy to see a switch of personnel in the White House.)

As for the implications of Obama’s election from a moving abroad perspective, there are a couple of points I’d like to highlight.

The first is how Obama has succeeded in giving new life – and colour – to the American Dream.

You only have to take a cursory look at his biography to see what a fascinating story his is. And in the post-election analysis people are already talking about the inspiration he is giving to their lives, and the example he is setting to their children of what is possible, that anyone in America truly can make it all the way to the top.

So at a time when America’s position as the world’s torch-bearer for life, liberty and opportunity – the beacon that has lured so many millions to its shores since those early settlers in the seventeenth century – was seriously guttering, Obama represents a rekindling force.

As such, he may help America regain its attractiveness, both for the people that already live there but had become disenchanted, and prospective immigrants.

The second, related, point is the widely-reported feeling that the election has made many Americans more proud of their country.

The Bush administrations have, without doubt, blighted America’s reputation around the world, inciting derision at best and murderous hate at worst. And from accounts I’ve read, and people I’ve spoken to, the Bush era seems to have spurred sizable numbers of Americans to move abroad, or at least want to.

But with the events of last Tuesday there are signs that perhaps America’s standing is back on the up. And given these times of unparalleled economic, diplomatic and military crises that is much needed, for all our sakes.

A blog on the Huffington Post (Expat No More? Proud to be an American Abroad, Vivian Norris de Montaigu, November 5, 2008 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vivian-norris-de-montaigu/expat-no-more-proud-to-be_b_141294.html) summed it up when the writer said how friends in the US had been threatening to leave the country if John McCain was elected, but that she was now hearing about Americans abroad who want to return to the States.

Perhaps America will be a pretty good place to be after all, whatever your current location and nationality.

Related posts:

1. Obama Inaugurates New Era For Americans Around The World

According to HSBC Bank International’s new Expat Existence survey, the best place to be an expatriate is in fact Singapore, followed by the United Arab Emirates and the US.

The HSBC report sought to investigate the opportunities and challenges that expats face in their new locations. To this end it ranked the countries according to a variety of factors that assessed expats’ ability to earn and save, their quality of accommodation, the level of luxury enjoyed (such as access to private healthcare, pool ownership, and the ability to employ staff), and a country’s popularity in terms of how long expats live there.

I wouldn’t disagree with the findings. I haven’t been to Singapore since the early 90s, but at the time I found it a clean and pleasant (if somewhat sterile) city.

It’s got an equable – albeit humid – climate, high education standards, low unemployment and good job opportunities, superb restaurants, low tax and living costs, and it serves as a convenient hub for travel in the wider region.

I can’t directly comment on the UAE, having never been there. However, as the CIA World Factbook notes, it has a high per capita income, strong economic growth and zero taxes in its Free Trade Zones. The money-earning potential therefore must be a particular lure. On the flip side I would imagine its climate is a significant drawback though.

The US has evident advantages too. My wife and I lived in New York for a year and loved it: the bustle and excitement, the opportunity to pursue the ‘American Dream,’ the chance to travel around what is an enormous and extremely varied country. I can therefore well-understand the allure it holds (which will no doubt increase once President Bush finally leaves office!).

By contrast, some traditional expat locations fared less well in the HSBC survey.

Australia came in 10^th, having received high marks for levels of luxury, accommodation, and the ability to earn and save, but with a low score for longevity. Spain, meanwhile, was 12^th and France 13^th.

The UK, which trailed in 14^th, proved the most expensive expat location for accommodation. It also ranked as the least luxurious, with decreases reported in nine of the 11 luxury categories. This will come as no surprise to the millions of British citizens who indicate they are planning their own escape from the country.

However, before you get carried away with the overall rankings and start changing your plans, it’s worth paying attention to the longevity scores. And here Europe came out triumphant.

The report found 82 percent of the expat respondents in the Netherlands have been there three or more years. Germany had the next highest figure, with 77 percent, while Spain was close behind with 76 percent.

No doubt there are a whole slew of reasons to account for this. Factors such as a reasonable year-round climate, ease of accessibility for trips back home, decent infrastructure (including transport, telecommunications, healthcare and education), political stability and a rich cultural heritage.

So although a hefty pay package and an army of domestic staff may be appealing, the financials of your move should not be the be-all and end-all. Rather, relocating abroad should be about improving your overall quality of life. Ultimately that is what will make it an enjoyable, and successful, experience.

Related posts:

1. Good Housekeeping Article on Moving Abroad
2. Language Learning
3. Endless Summer – The Postcards Tour Finale

Coincidentally I had watched Michael Clayton, which Pollack produced and acted in, only the night before. The story follows the struggles of two men, the eponymous hero (played by George Clooney) and his colleague, lawyer Arthur Edens, who are caught up in a class-action lawsuit against an agrochemical production company. Both feel trapped in their current situations. Both desperately want to change their lives, to make them better, to be the people they want to be.

It seems a fitting testament to Pollack. While he may not have had the public status of the likes of a Clooney or Spielberg, in the industry he was a highly-regarded and influential director and producer. And as George Clooney’s tribute put it: “Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better.”

Could any of us hope for a better eulogy? To feel perhaps we’ve contributed in some small way to making the world a better place, to have pursued our dreams and ideals in our careers and lives, and to have brought some happiness to the people around us along the way.

So think about what it is that you truly want for your life. What would make you feel happy and fulfilled? Perhaps it’s that move abroad you’ve been dreaming about. Or a new job. Whatever it is, now is the time to shoot for it. Sure it may take a struggle, but aren’t the rewards worth fighting for? After all, it is your life.

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I guess we went through all the usual trepidations parents feel as their ‘babies’ step through the school gates for the first time. Will she make friends? Will she like the teacher? Will she think we’ve deserted her? Will she be scared? Will she go to the toilet OK? What if she falls over in the playground and hurts herself? Will she behave? Will she like it, and want to go again tomorrow?

But there were some added concerns too. For one, the classes are all in Catalan, and she doesn’t speak a word of it, since we speak English at home. She’s also a chatterbox. So how would she be with this sudden entry into a world where she understands nothing her teacher and classmates say, and vice versa? Will she be bored in class? Frustrated? Resentful?

We know many kids from other countries have gone through the same process, and that as a result of this total immersion they pick up the language quickly. As the saying goes, kids are sponges. Nevertheless, to see them struggle through the transition phase from blank bewilderment to eventual fluency tugs on the heartstrings.

But the main, underlying reason for the worry is that our daughter has severe food allergies. At six months old she had an anaphylactic reaction to a doctor-prescribed, supposedly safe milk formula given to allergenic kids. We had to rush her to hospital as her mouth and tongue became swollen and she started to turn blue. I’ve never forgotten the terror of that car journey.

But now we have to let her out into the wide world, to a place where the kids bring breakfast and snacks into the classroom: bread, cheese, chocolate, biscuits and crisps, all the things that could produce another, potentially fatal, anaphylactic shock. To keep her safe we applied, and were eventually given funding, for a classroom assistant whose sole responsibility is to keep an eye on our daughter and see she doesn’t come into contact with these dangers. It is a comfort, the best case scenario we could hope for given the educational set up here in Spain. Still, it’s not easy to let go.

Related posts:

1. Spanish School Holidays