TRAVELLING THE ALPHABET GEOGRAPHICALLY

Clare recounts her 40-year project to travel to at least one country for every letter of the English alphabet.

Clare, author of Raising the Successful Child (1998), has few self-directed rules along her epic journey: A country must have its own language, culture, and parliament (or equivalent), and she must stay for at least one night, leave the airport, and eat at least one meal. Starting as an 11-year-old on a 1966 family holiday in Wales, she completed her alphabetical travel journey around age 70, culminating in a trip to the Yemeni island of Socotra in 2025. Clare’s world travels parallel her life journey. The letter X represents her internal journey to recover from a difficult childhood, accept her ADHD, and live as mindfully as possible. Covering almost all continents, the trips range from camping outings, African treks, retreats with spiritual gurus, and visits to major European landmarks. Her unfiltered opinions about different locales add depth. For her, Africa “is a healing place…I felt at home here the first time I came, thirty-four years ago, and I feel it here in this place now.” But Hungary’s ostentatious St. Stephen’s Basilica leaves her cold because she’s “a Buddhist Quaker who prefers simplicity and silence.” In chronologically organized chapters, she marries, has children, divorces, learns to travel confidently as a single woman with and without her children, deals with the effects of PTSD and complex trauma from childhood, finds solace in Buddhism, and enjoys a fulfilling relationship with her “beloved second husband,” David. Her perspective on the merits of organized tours exemplifies how she’s evolved over the decades, from fierce independence to the realization that “experts are good.” She acknowledges the effects of aging—like “dodgy backs”—throughout as well. A recurring theme of notable toilet facilities—in Peru, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen especially—adds a humorous note to this most nontraditional of travel books.

An eclectic, evocative travel memoir that offers insight, compassion, and healing as a bonus.