Book Travel Bucket List by Ella Fairlie

Hello lovely readers! I’m ridiculously excited and thankful that Simona has let me pop in and chat to you today, especially since I get to talk about travel and books – two of my favourite things in the world! I’ve just released the second little novella in my ‘Bucket List’ series, so I thought it would be fun if I shared one of my own Bucket Lists – ten places I wanted to visit, inspired by reading. Some I have been to, and some I have yet to tick off, but I first fell in love with all of them through an author’s imagination.

1. Tuscany (inspired by Room with a View by EM Forster)

I may have seen and adored the film first, but I read the novel soon after, and meeting Lucy Honeychurch, George Emerson, and their friends made me LONG to go to Florence and the Tuscan countryside. Lucky me, I’ve visited both many times since, and never been disappointed. The last time I read the novel, I was spending a month volunteering on a vineyard near Montalcino, and fell for it all over again during long, sundrenched siestas stretched out on a hammock. Travel swoon.

2. Capri (inspired by I Love Capri by Belinda Jones)

As you might guess from the above, I was deep into a love affair with Italy by the time I read Belinda Jones’ charming novel, but Capri hadn’t been top of the list until then. Belinda has such an amazing talent for travel writing crossed with romcom – I don’t think anyone does it quite as well as she does. A few years later, I set off down the Amalfi Coast on a girls’ holiday we dubbed The Blonde Roadtrip because it involved three blondes in a convertible (just as fun as it sounds). I even wore Capri pants in Capri. In for a lira, in for a pound.

3. Bali (inspired by Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert)

Did anyone who read this NOT immediately want to go to Bali? I wasn’t sold on the blurb, but once I discovered Liz Gilbert on Ted – whip smart, articulate, funny, profound – I read the book and loved it. Of the three destinations, I loved her peaceful time in Indonesia most, and I’m dying to go. Even if Javier Bardem isn’t actually there waiting for me ;)

4. South Carolina (inspired by Pat Conroy)

Pat Conroy is one of my all-time favourite writers – his novels are just amazing. As well as being full of huge, complex, cathartic emotions, they also often talk about places in his adopted home state of South Carolina – elegant cities like Charleston, small towns and military bases, islands in the marshlands. One day I’m determined to do a road trip though the American South, so I can finally see them.

5. Egypt (inspired by The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif)

When I spent a year teaching in Milan, novels in English were an expensive treat, so this is one of the few I read during that year. It’s a wonderful piece of fiction, evoking both colonial and modern Egypt, and long after I forgot the details of plot and character, the stark beauty of the setting echoed on. I got to go to Egypt a few years later, and it was everything I’d dreamt of – beautiful, chaotic and complex.

6. Kenya (inspired by Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen)

Although I grew up in South Africa and have been on safari many times, I have yet to visit the Serengeti, where this wonderful memoir was set. It’s one of my favourite books of all time, so Kenya is high on my must-see list, ideally with the full-scale luxury tented safari experience (and I won’t complain if a young Robert Redford happens to be there playing Mozart on a gramophone!).

7. Paris (inspired by The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy)

I’d never heard of this crazy, wonderful little book gem until I found it in my local library. It’s about a young woman who basically larks about 1950s Paris drinking champagne cocktails, which made me want to do the same. I’ve only spent a day in Paris (I know!) so this is one bucket list item yet to be properly ticked off. Larking and champagne? What a hardship that will be. ;)

8. Bath (inspired by Persuasion by Jane Austen)

Jane Austen may not have been fond of Bath, but since that’s where she set some of the most romantic scenes from one of my favourite of her novels (THAT LETTER!!), as soon as I moved to London a decade ago, I started planning a trip to Bath. It’s just the loveliest place to visit.

9. Corfu (inspired by My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell)

My mum first read this to me when I was little, and not only was it eye-wateringly funny, it made me want to go to Greece.  Which I have, several times, and yet I’ve never quite made it to Corfu. I think in some ways, I’m putting it off, knowing that it’ll never be the same unspoiled paradise that I remember from the book. Then again, Greece has yet to disappoint me…

10. New York (inspired by From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg)

There are actually many books, TV shows and films that inspired me to go to New York as soon as I graduated from university, but I think this might have been the first, so it has a special place in my heart. I mean, the Met is my favourite museum in the world. I STILL want to live in it.


The Venice Bucket List by Ella Fairlie 

Single mum Tess has enough on her plate without being forced to tag along on her brother and his girlfriend’s romantic winter holiday to Venice, and she certainly isn’t looking for a Valentine love affair of her own. But with the annual Carnival afoot, Venice has some magic and mayhem in store for her, in the form of a handsome masked stranger with a surprising secret. Will the city of glass and gondolas be able to work its charm, or is this one amore that’s lost in translation?

‘The Venice Bucket List’ is a deliciously escapist destination romcom novella about how love can surprise you when you least expect it.

About the author

Ella Fairlie was born and bred in South Africa, but ran off to see the world as soon as she

had a literature degree. She has lived in New York, Milan and London (and been fashionable in none of them). For ten years, she worked in book publishing, before becoming a full-time blogger and digital nomad (wherever she lays her Mac is her home). She loves rugby, white wine, avocados and ‘80s high school movies (although not necessarily all at once).

In 2014 she was the joint winner of the Sunlounger competition and had her story, ‘Days of Miracle & Wonder’, published in the Sunlounger 2 anthology. In December 2014 she published the first in a series of romcom novellas, The Christmas Bucket List.

Ella on Twitter: @EllaFairlie Website: http://ellafairlie.com
Book Links
Sunlounger 2 - Amazon UK
The Christmas Bucket List - Amazon UK
The Venice Bucket List - Amazon UK