More Ketchup Than Salsa: Confessions of a Tenerife Barman

When Joe and his girlfriend Joy decide to trade in their life on a cold Lancashire fish market to run a bar in the Tenerife sunshine, they anticipate a paradise of sea, sand and siestas. Little did they expect their foreign fantasy to turn out to be about as exotic as Grimsby on a wet Monday morning. Amidst a host of eccentric locals, homesickness and the occasional cockroach infestation, pint-pulling novices Joe and Joy struggle with 'Brits abroad' culture and learn that, although the skies might be bluer, the grass is definitely not always greener. Dubbed 'Little Britain with a suntan', "More Ketchup than Salsa" lifts the lid on the morning-afters as well as the night-befores of life in a busy holiday resort. This is a must-read for anybody who has ever dreamed about jetting off to sunnier climes.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION – 

"Author"

Joe Cawley is a freelance travel writer and is a member of The British Guild of Travel Writers. He has written for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Independent, the Observer, the New York Post and Conde Nast Traveler amongst many others.

Joe Cawley is an award-winning travel writer and author. He's medically compelled to travel to alleviate sporadic bouts of island fever that leave him with a nasty rash and an uncontrollable urge to shout obscenities at the top of his voice.

His work has been published in The Sunday Times, New York Post, Tapei Times, Conde Nast Travel and many others. His first book, More Ketchup than Salsa, was voted Best Travel Narrative by the British Guild of Travel Writers.

Joe lives in the hills of Tenerife, one of Spain's Canary Islands, with his family and an assortment of other wildlife. The goats are no relation, despite rumours to the contrary.

Joe Cawley

SOME OF THE CUSTOMER REVIEWS ABOUT THIS TRAVEL BOOK [ SAMPLE ]

1) Insightful and Hillarious - I would defy anyone who has ever lived in the UK, or anywhere else that is often cold, wet and rainy, not to say that they have had a secret yearning to change their life by heading for a life abroad. Every years, millions of us make the cattle class journey to European resorts and we watch the Brit's who have made it, those who live permanently in our holiday destinations, with envy, thinking `what if`. But, is the grass always greener in the sun? Of course not, it's usually non-existent, the landscape can be barren and you definitely don't get the manicured countryside that I love about Britain.

In More Ketchup than Salsa, Joe had me laughing so hard that I spilled a cup of tea all over the bed. His tale of travelling from Bolton Fish Market to Tenerife Costa del Bognor opens up the can of worms that most of us never even consider when we are sitting sipping coffee on a terrace and dreaming. His daily battles with cockroaches, the local mafia, animals and the never ending variety of people that stepped through his door, was the wake up call I needed to think again about what it was I might just do if I ever decided to take the plunge and live abroad. This is the perfect book to take on holiday with you especially if you are already planning to make that move.

By Linda Parkinson-Hardman on August 9, 2012

2) Fun read for anyone who has dreamed of chucking it all and opening a bar - First off, I would say this book is NOT about Tenerife per se. If you're looking for a travel guide, this is not it! However, I enjoyed it very much. It's more of a "fish out of water" tale that will entertain anyone who has experience with tourism.

By Dia Adams, The Deal Mommy on June 18, 2012

Link to BUY – More Ketchup Than Salsa: Confessions of a Tenerife Barman

The Marches: A Borderland Journey between England and Scotland

From the best-selling author of The Places in Between, “a flat-out masterpiece” (New York Times Book Review), an exploration of the Marches—the borderland between England and Scotland—and the people, history, and conflicts that have shaped it

In The Places in Between Rory Stewart walked through the most dangerous borderlands in the world. Now he walks along the border he calls home—where political turmoil and vivid lives have played out for centuries across a magnificent natural landscape—to tell the story of the Marches.

In his thousand-mile journey, Stewart sleeps on mountain ridges and in housing estates, in hostels and in farmhouses. Following lines of ancient neolithic standing stones, wading through floods and ruined fields, he walks Hadrian’s Wall with soldiers who have fought in Afghanistan, and visits the Buddhist monks who outnumber Christian monks in the Scottish countryside today. He melds the stories of the people he meets with the region’s political and economic history, tracing the creation of Scotland from ancient tribes to the independence referendum. And he discovers another country buried in history, a vanished Middleland: the lost kingdom of Cumbria.

With every step, Stewart reveals the force of myths and traditions and the endurance of ties that are woven into the fabric of the land itself. A meditation on deep history, the pull of national identity, and home, The Marches is a transporting work from a powerful and original writer.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION – 

"Author"

RORY STEWART is the bestselling author of The Places in Between and The Prince of the Marshes. A former director of the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy and Ryan Professor of Human Rights at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services in Iraq. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border, a constituency in Northern Cumbria, where he lives with his wife.

Link to BUY – The Marches: A Borderland Journey between England and Scotland