The author and her husband devised a simple plan – to take a tent and the dog and drive around the perimeter of France. Like many simple plans it went wrong before it started and they ended up with two dogs and a campervan named Tinkerbelle. On the second day of their journey Tinkerbelle begins to self-destruct, helped by the new dog who does his best to eat her from the inside out. This is their story, as they travel from sandy beaches to snow-topped mountains exploring the diverse cultures, cuisines and countryside making up the country called France. Their journey takes them to places out of the ordinary, meeting interesting characters and witnessing ancient traditions. While the dogs rejoice in the freedom they find running on the beaches, Susie and Terry spend a lot of time holding their breath, wondering whether Tinkerbelle will manage to negotiate impossible mountain routes and get them home before she completely disintegrates.

Like Susie’s other bestselling books – Best Foot Forward: A 500 Mile Walk Through Hidden France and The Valley of Heaven and Hell: Cycling In The Shadow of Marie Antoinette, Travels with Tinkerbelle is a mixture of travel and history sprinkled with Susie’s unique, opinionated but self-depreciating humour. Travels with Tinkerbelle is a revision of  A Perfect Circle, previously published by Transworld Publishers. Enhanced features of this edition include links to more information about the most significant places visited on the trip and an accompanying on-line photograph album.

Another triumph ”…makes you feel the author is sitting beside you like a chat in the pub. I even slowed down my usual reading pace to try and make it last longer. I shall now start all over again this time with a road atlas to hand and a felt tip pen to mark the places for a future visit. P. Prior, Amazon US 5* review