A Little More Luck

Frank Nelson

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

A Little More Luck - and a lot more laughs - continues the wonderful globetrotting lifestyle of Frank and Maria Nelson. Three years after leaving their adopted home in New Zealand, and armed now with freshly-minted American green cards, the pair settle down for a year in Colorado. In the city of Boulder, the newly arrived journalists and nurses find themselves grappling with such slippery customers as political correctness, prairie dogs, the tax man, the effects of altitude and more trashy television channels than can possibly be good for you.

Next the nomadic Nelsons return to England for 10 more months of hilarious house and pet-sitting with Animal Aunts - plenty long enough to appreciate that when it comes to the British and their animals, it's not just the dogs that are barking.

Frank and Maria also find time to explore France and Spain besides taking trips to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Mexico. Finally it's back to the States, this time to check out those crazy Californians in sunny San Diego. World travel as a way of life is a hell of a job, but somebody's got to do it...

"This very funny sequel to All You Need is Luck crackles with dry British humour and will delight travellers the world over."

Visit the Web site www.allyouneedisluck.com

Review by Chrissi (310804) Rating (8/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 8/10
You remember I said that I was looking forward to seeing where Frank and Maria Nelson had got too? Well, they were kind enough to send us their next instalment of their travelling adventures. At the end of All You Need is Luck they were in America during 2001, and this pretty much takes over from that point. Frank’s writing is lovely, almost like having a conversation with a friend – it helps that he is so honest on the things that he tells us, and although their luck has no small amount of planning involved, there have been times when all has not gone particularly swimmingly for them.

There is something about Franks writing that strikes me as very English, it is not just the comments about English people abroad and our rather pallid legs appearing in shorts, but he maintains a sense of wonder mixed with a slight cynicism at the foibles of other nations. He particularly amused me when he described the wonderful resort casino hotels in Las Vegas, designed specifically to separate people from their money. These wonderful palatial hotels were then counter pointed with a European hotel, when Frank and Maria realised that they had been completely ruined by the American service industry.

Once again though, it is the descriptions of the people and the animals that they have worked with, from the couple from Yorkshire flown to Chicago to see Jerry Springer being filmed (they won a competition!) to the food-thieving Pyrenean mountain dog with a dickey tummy (yuck… I think I’ll leave the rest to your imagination…), all of his descriptions are full of little observations and affection.

I can think of lots of reasons to read these books. One that they will make you smile, two, they could well give you itchy feet and three that they (both the books and the impressions that I have of Frank and Maria) are just so nice. If you don’t want to travel the world, (I for one am highly unlikely to see the largest thermometer in the world) you can do it vicariously through Frank’s writing… I’m waiting for the next one!
Chrissi (31st August 2004)