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Not Quite Lost: Travels Without A Sense of Direction
In life there’s the fast lane, and then there’s the scenic route. Take your time getting there and you might meet people whose stories are as gripping as those of any famous name.
In Not Quite Lost, Roz Morris celebrates the hidden dramas in the apparently ordinary. Her childhood home, with a giant star-gazing telescope on the horizon and a garden path that disappears under next door’s house. A tour guide in Glastonbury who is having a real-life romance with a character from Arthurian legend. A unit on a suburban business park where people are preparing to deep-freeze each other when they die.
But even low-key travel has its hazards, and Roz nearly runs down several gentlemen from Porlock when her brakes give up on her. She takes her marriage vows in a language she doesn’t speak, has a Strictly-style adventure when she stumbles into a job as a flashmob dancer, and hears an unexpected message in an experiment in ESP.
Wry, romantic, amused and wonder-struck, Not Quite Lost is an ode to the quiet places you never realised might tell you a tale.
In Not Quite Lost, Roz Morris celebrates the hidden dramas in the apparently ordinary. Her childhood home, with a giant star-gazing telescope on the horizon and a garden path that disappears under next door’s house. A tour guide in Glastonbury who is having a real-life romance with a character from Arthurian legend. A unit on a suburban business park where people are preparing to deep-freeze each other when they die.
But even low-key travel has its hazards, and Roz nearly runs down several gentlemen from Porlock when her brakes give up on her. She takes her marriage vows in a language she doesn’t speak, has a Strictly-style adventure when she stumbles into a job as a flashmob dancer, and hears an unexpected message in an experiment in ESP.
Wry, romantic, amused and wonder-struck, Not Quite Lost is an ode to the quiet places you never realised might tell you a tale.
- GenresTravelNonfiction
186 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published October 2, 2017
10 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Roz Morris
24 books371 followersWhat do I read? Fiction that cares about characters AND plot. Although I'm a sucker for beautiful language, I like a story too, dammit. I'm a slow reader because I'm easily trapped by lovely sentences and ideas, and when I enjoy a book I'm reluctant to leave its world behind.
I live in London with my writer husband, and our house is mostly decorated with bookshelves - so much so that different rooms are devoted to different categories, like a shop. My study, where I'm writing this now, is the fiction room - and when I look up from my keyboard it's a pleasure to see the spines of novels that have been important to me.
I'm a journalist, ghostwriter, editor and writing coach, and I'm also coming out from behind the ghosting curtain with novels of my own.
I've got eight books in circulation (books that I can admit to, that is!) Four are about writing - the Nail Your Novel series. I also have three nailed novels. My Memories of a Future Life is a contemporary reincarnation story with a twist that asks as many questions as it answers. Lifeform Three is a science fiction fable in the tradition of Ray Bradbury. Ever Rest is an exploration of how we live after we lose the most important person in our world. And I have a book of true travel tales, Not Quite Lost: Travels Without A Sense of Direction.
Ever Rest will be published on 3 June 2021.
Sign up for my newsletter https://tinyurl.com/rozmorriswriter
I live in London with my writer husband, and our house is mostly decorated with bookshelves - so much so that different rooms are devoted to different categories, like a shop. My study, where I'm writing this now, is the fiction room - and when I look up from my keyboard it's a pleasure to see the spines of novels that have been important to me.
I'm a journalist, ghostwriter, editor and writing coach, and I'm also coming out from behind the ghosting curtain with novels of my own.
I've got eight books in circulation (books that I can admit to, that is!) Four are about writing - the Nail Your Novel series. I also have three nailed novels. My Memories of a Future Life is a contemporary reincarnation story with a twist that asks as many questions as it answers. Lifeform Three is a science fiction fable in the tradition of Ray Bradbury. Ever Rest is an exploration of how we live after we lose the most important person in our world. And I have a book of true travel tales, Not Quite Lost: Travels Without A Sense of Direction.
Ever Rest will be published on 3 June 2021.
Sign up for my newsletter https://tinyurl.com/rozmorriswriter
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
October 2, 2017
I've been a fan of Bill Bryson ever since he made me spray cappuccino all over "Tales from a Small Island" in a central Brighton cafe ten years ago, and anyone who likes his work will certainly enjoy Roz Morris' "Not Quite Lost".
But that's where the similarity ends, because whereas Bryson builds us up for the belly laughs and buys us a bourbon afterwards, the Morris approach is more poetic, quirky, whimsical, perhaps even melancholic at times and speaks more to the soul than the belly. Moreover, most of us will have memories of the often rain-sodden excursions and exhausting journeys to less-than-luxurious destinations that Morris describes in many of the stories here, bringing to mind the cry of bored children everywhere: "Are we there yet?"
This is partly, of course, because Morris is British, rather than an avuncular, if occasionally outspoken, American. Her prose is light, floating on gossamer wings as she surveys the wistful landscape or explores the whispering walls of an ancient building as it reveals its past to her sensitive ears. In this sense, it is not just Morris and husband Dave who are literally 'not quite lost', hovering on the frayed edge between one road atlas page and the next, but the places too, often derelict or neglected, that she rescues from oblivion by committing their stories to black and white.
Her description of people and places is often uncannily accurate and frequently moving — the story of her family house, skilfully interweaving the fate of family and bricks and mortar alike, had tears rolling down my cheeks. She has a knack of making us want to follow in her footsteps and explore these places for ourselves, to look through the same windows at the mist-shrouded fields and climb the same dizzying stairs to emerge to a sun-bathed cityscape. She meets and commits to memory — ours, as well as hers — tour guides, shop keepers and love-struck ramblers with humanity and affection. Even the car they travel in becomes a character, apparently possessed by some low-grade mechanical poltergeist.
The book is not without regular amusement, providing light to balance the occasional shade. Her portrait of husband Dave, the dutiful, patient and occasionally sarcastic passenger as they explore the untrodden highways and byways in the middle of nowhere, frequently in rain, fog or even earthquakes, is delightful, an insight into a marriage — the ceremony of which was conducted in a language which neither of them understood, as you will find out — that is clearly a deeply affectionate partnership.
This contrasts with fascinating revelations about the author's own life, ghostwriter to (on pain of death) unnamed A-listed authors, literary novelist who insists on writing books that traditional publishers claim they can't sell (so she publishes them — successfully — herself), and sometime TV and movie extra and exercise fanatic. Her story about participating in a major 'flashmob' event was both exhilarating and, again, moving.
A collection of journal entries and anecdotes, all of which, remarkably, are true, it is difficult to categorise this work. You could say it is ideal reading for the smallest room in the house, but it is so much more than that and I devoured most of it in a single, long, bewitched session. By turns intriguing, educational and always witty and insightful, I've never read a book quite like this before, but if Morris were to write another, I would certainly do so again.
Beautifully written and with a cover reminiscent of those wonderful railway posters of yore, I have no hesitation in recommending "Not Quite Lost" by Roz Morris.
But that's where the similarity ends, because whereas Bryson builds us up for the belly laughs and buys us a bourbon afterwards, the Morris approach is more poetic, quirky, whimsical, perhaps even melancholic at times and speaks more to the soul than the belly. Moreover, most of us will have memories of the often rain-sodden excursions and exhausting journeys to less-than-luxurious destinations that Morris describes in many of the stories here, bringing to mind the cry of bored children everywhere: "Are we there yet?"
This is partly, of course, because Morris is British, rather than an avuncular, if occasionally outspoken, American. Her prose is light, floating on gossamer wings as she surveys the wistful landscape or explores the whispering walls of an ancient building as it reveals its past to her sensitive ears. In this sense, it is not just Morris and husband Dave who are literally 'not quite lost', hovering on the frayed edge between one road atlas page and the next, but the places too, often derelict or neglected, that she rescues from oblivion by committing their stories to black and white.
Her description of people and places is often uncannily accurate and frequently moving — the story of her family house, skilfully interweaving the fate of family and bricks and mortar alike, had tears rolling down my cheeks. She has a knack of making us want to follow in her footsteps and explore these places for ourselves, to look through the same windows at the mist-shrouded fields and climb the same dizzying stairs to emerge to a sun-bathed cityscape. She meets and commits to memory — ours, as well as hers — tour guides, shop keepers and love-struck ramblers with humanity and affection. Even the car they travel in becomes a character, apparently possessed by some low-grade mechanical poltergeist.
The book is not without regular amusement, providing light to balance the occasional shade. Her portrait of husband Dave, the dutiful, patient and occasionally sarcastic passenger as they explore the untrodden highways and byways in the middle of nowhere, frequently in rain, fog or even earthquakes, is delightful, an insight into a marriage — the ceremony of which was conducted in a language which neither of them understood, as you will find out — that is clearly a deeply affectionate partnership.
This contrasts with fascinating revelations about the author's own life, ghostwriter to (on pain of death) unnamed A-listed authors, literary novelist who insists on writing books that traditional publishers claim they can't sell (so she publishes them — successfully — herself), and sometime TV and movie extra and exercise fanatic. Her story about participating in a major 'flashmob' event was both exhilarating and, again, moving.
A collection of journal entries and anecdotes, all of which, remarkably, are true, it is difficult to categorise this work. You could say it is ideal reading for the smallest room in the house, but it is so much more than that and I devoured most of it in a single, long, bewitched session. By turns intriguing, educational and always witty and insightful, I've never read a book quite like this before, but if Morris were to write another, I would certainly do so again.
Beautifully written and with a cover reminiscent of those wonderful railway posters of yore, I have no hesitation in recommending "Not Quite Lost" by Roz Morris.
September 26, 2017
Full disclosure: I am in this book, and as for the author - reader, I married her. So you may take my review with a degree of skepticism, if you will, but if you are looking for a particularly English style of dry humour, quirky observation, and understated but profound humanity - this is the book for you.
December 8, 2018
Reading fiction is a one way to escape today's harsh reality. However, sometimes you can also do that with a non-fiction book as well. From my experience, this is particularly true of travel books, which take us to locations both known and unknown, and see them through the eyes of another. In this travel diary by Roz Morris, we get all of that, and so much more, including large doses of humor. You can read more about what I thought of this book in my review here (which includes a cliffhanger for a future blog post as well). https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2017/09/1...
September 18, 2017
I've been a fan of Roz Morris's 'how to write' output for a while, and when I saw Not Quite Lost I was curious to see how it would work. I've enjoyed Bill Bryson's books and Not Quite Lost sits in a similar space. It seems ironic that I can't drive, and would struggle to see the places Morris details in the book without a car, but thanks to her vivid tales, I feel I have seen them anyway. The book is both a glimpse into a fascinating mind and a peek behind the curtain of the real world behind the glossy ads and tourism brochures. Not Quite Lost is a marvellous way to explore the sorts of places bypassed by the holiday companies and travel bloggers, which in a way makes them richer places to visit. I was genuinely sad when I reached the end of the book, wanting just one more tale to prolong the reading experience. It provides plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and if you enjoy travel, humour, or good old-fashioned good writing, then you'll love this book.
August 13, 2017
A remarkable collection of personal memoirs. The occasions portrayed largely covered time spent away in dysfunctional B&Bs/localities and are delightfully told. A number of the situations rang loud bells but it is the art of the storyteller to turn the mundane into the hilarious or, indeed, the dramatic. Ms Morris is certainly endowed with that art. A great read to pick up and put down - even the venture into cryonics - and I would recommend it to anyone who needs a lift. However, I shall be a lot more careful about what, if anything, I write in visitors' books in the future.
October 2, 2017
As with any decent travelogue, there is a third subject revealed beyond the people and places encountered: the writer herself, and anyone familiar with her other books will enjoy the slow revelation of her determined, undauntable character, keen to make the most of any situation and opportunity. Her inner resourcefulness is best revealed in the chapter that features the shortest journey, from home to central London, where she signs up to take part in a video dance routine for an advertisement, performed at a major railway station, rehearsed at dead of night but filmed during rush hour.
Whether or not you come to this book with knowledge of Morris's novels and handbooks for writers, this travel memoir is a quirky and engaging read that will make you pay better attention next time you pass an eccentric old building on the road less travelled.
I received an ARC of this book.
Whether or not you come to this book with knowledge of Morris's novels and handbooks for writers, this travel memoir is a quirky and engaging read that will make you pay better attention next time you pass an eccentric old building on the road less travelled.
I received an ARC of this book.
October 2, 2017
I was given an advance copy of Not Quite Lost to review. I’m a slow reader and have a lot of books in my pile so was a bit wary it might take me until publication day to finish it – but as soon as I started I couldn’t put it down.
The beauty of Not Quite Lost is Roz Morris’s ability to find fascination in the mundane as well as the quirky. As I was reading it, I found myself nodding – we’ve all had similar experiences but few of us have troubled to chronicle them and to bring them back to life on the page. Like the pushy shopkeeper pursuing Roz out of the shop into the street, still set on a sale. Or the lovestruck young man who walks alongside her and her horse and tells her he is about to make an unannounced visit to a girl he has met online having travelled across the country to do so.
Some of the places were familiar - I have driven countless times down the wonderful A303 and noticed what Morris has called Pig-Henge, a series of pig sties arranged in circles, and have witnessed the giant cooling towers of West Burton power station on many visits to friends in Nottinghamshire, but Roz Morris has managed to find something magical in these things. I have also experienced earthquakes in Italy - not one but two. I worked through the first - completely oblivious to the tremors and wondering why my secretary was yelling like a mad woman. The second happened when I was at a family celebration in a hotel on Lake Iseo. Everyone was talking about the earthquake over breakfast - beds moving across floors, windows rattling and I had slept through it all. Unlike me, Morris and friends are very much aware of the one they experience in Vicenza, talking about it every evening of their holiday, in a kind of ‘what I was doing when JFK died’ sort of way. “Like a campfire story or an epic told in a Saxon mead hall, to grapple with the fact that we had escaped much worse.”
This book is a great advert for the properties of The Landmark Trust – a collection of weird and wonderful follies and odd buildings – Morris and husband have clearly made it their life’s mission to stay in all of them. I ended up scrolling the pages of the Landmark Trust website to find an interesting and isolated place to run away to. I can however confirm I will not want to try out Roz’s ten rapidly repeated trips up the 150 stairs of Beckford’s Tower as an exercise regime.
Probably one of the reasons I loved the book is that I share the author’s obsession with old abandoned buildings. Give me a ruin or an empty abandoned house and I want to get inside it. If I can’t manage that, I do so vicariously, googling away trying to find out its past and its secrets. I was so glad to discover on reading this book that someone else is similarly bonkers! I confess that before I’d finished the first chapter I had googled and found Edge Croft, Morris’s former family home – the knowledge that it had been demolished being enough to make me want to see how it was before the bulldozers struck.
Morris combines the beautiful prose of her novels with a wry self-deprecating humour and an ability to create a vivid image on the page. I loved her description of the cryogenic plant near Pevensey (just a few miles from me but I won’t be rushing to visit!) as “a bit like a home-brew kit but with bodies”. Anyone who manages to make interesting jammed car windows, the braking systems of automatic cars, and country walks that lead to nowhere (not to mention staircases that do the same), has to be a bloody good writer. There is an obvious temptation to compare the book to Bill Bryson’s – the beautiful cover design virtually mandates that. There is a similarity with early BB but I much prefer Roz to the curmudgeonly moaner that Bryson has now become. Her humour is always gentle and directed as much at herself as at the weird and wonderful people she meets along the way.
This book would make a perfect gift – keep a copy in your guest room and you’ll never see your guests as they will be either lost in it – or inspired by it to go out exploring to find wonders in the world all around them.
The beauty of Not Quite Lost is Roz Morris’s ability to find fascination in the mundane as well as the quirky. As I was reading it, I found myself nodding – we’ve all had similar experiences but few of us have troubled to chronicle them and to bring them back to life on the page. Like the pushy shopkeeper pursuing Roz out of the shop into the street, still set on a sale. Or the lovestruck young man who walks alongside her and her horse and tells her he is about to make an unannounced visit to a girl he has met online having travelled across the country to do so.
Some of the places were familiar - I have driven countless times down the wonderful A303 and noticed what Morris has called Pig-Henge, a series of pig sties arranged in circles, and have witnessed the giant cooling towers of West Burton power station on many visits to friends in Nottinghamshire, but Roz Morris has managed to find something magical in these things. I have also experienced earthquakes in Italy - not one but two. I worked through the first - completely oblivious to the tremors and wondering why my secretary was yelling like a mad woman. The second happened when I was at a family celebration in a hotel on Lake Iseo. Everyone was talking about the earthquake over breakfast - beds moving across floors, windows rattling and I had slept through it all. Unlike me, Morris and friends are very much aware of the one they experience in Vicenza, talking about it every evening of their holiday, in a kind of ‘what I was doing when JFK died’ sort of way. “Like a campfire story or an epic told in a Saxon mead hall, to grapple with the fact that we had escaped much worse.”
This book is a great advert for the properties of The Landmark Trust – a collection of weird and wonderful follies and odd buildings – Morris and husband have clearly made it their life’s mission to stay in all of them. I ended up scrolling the pages of the Landmark Trust website to find an interesting and isolated place to run away to. I can however confirm I will not want to try out Roz’s ten rapidly repeated trips up the 150 stairs of Beckford’s Tower as an exercise regime.
Probably one of the reasons I loved the book is that I share the author’s obsession with old abandoned buildings. Give me a ruin or an empty abandoned house and I want to get inside it. If I can’t manage that, I do so vicariously, googling away trying to find out its past and its secrets. I was so glad to discover on reading this book that someone else is similarly bonkers! I confess that before I’d finished the first chapter I had googled and found Edge Croft, Morris’s former family home – the knowledge that it had been demolished being enough to make me want to see how it was before the bulldozers struck.
Morris combines the beautiful prose of her novels with a wry self-deprecating humour and an ability to create a vivid image on the page. I loved her description of the cryogenic plant near Pevensey (just a few miles from me but I won’t be rushing to visit!) as “a bit like a home-brew kit but with bodies”. Anyone who manages to make interesting jammed car windows, the braking systems of automatic cars, and country walks that lead to nowhere (not to mention staircases that do the same), has to be a bloody good writer. There is an obvious temptation to compare the book to Bill Bryson’s – the beautiful cover design virtually mandates that. There is a similarity with early BB but I much prefer Roz to the curmudgeonly moaner that Bryson has now become. Her humour is always gentle and directed as much at herself as at the weird and wonderful people she meets along the way.
This book would make a perfect gift – keep a copy in your guest room and you’ll never see your guests as they will be either lost in it – or inspired by it to go out exploring to find wonders in the world all around them.
April 11, 2020
Great bite-sized tales that ooze with charm. A wonderful wholesome read for a Sunday in the spring air and sun. Morris has a great flair for turning the ordinary and mundane into engaging drama. Entertaining and witty. Highly recommended.
October 3, 2017
Move over Bill Bryson and make way for a new kid in travel narrative. This is one of those books that you simply didn't know that you needed. But you do.
I must warn you that this is a beguilingly dangerous tome. I was unable to avoid visiting locations highlighted during my recent tour around Suffolk and Norfolk. I fear that future UK trips will find me following Morris excursions down the bizarre highways and byways of this country.
That is what this book is all about. Roz Morris takes impish delight in cataloguing the strange meetings, encounters, peoples and places she has experienced during her travels.
I must warn you that this is a beguilingly dangerous tome. I was unable to avoid visiting locations highlighted during my recent tour around Suffolk and Norfolk. I fear that future UK trips will find me following Morris excursions down the bizarre highways and byways of this country.
That is what this book is all about. Roz Morris takes impish delight in cataloguing the strange meetings, encounters, peoples and places she has experienced during her travels.
August 4, 2022
Roz Morris’ Not Quite Lost is a marvelously cozy memoir to tuck up with in your favorite chair on a weekend, cup of tea in hand.
Quiet, funny, observant, the book rolls through one short essay after another about the author’s travels through life, both real and metaphysical. Most of the adventures take place with her husband, Dave, in their native country of England. They travel at odd times of year for odd reasons and meet odd, but colorful, people. And many of their wanderings involve once-grand, now spooky homes.
Though most of the tellings are humorous portrayals of strange moments, the author proves a deft hand at using such occasions to highlight the offbeat and profound twists and turns life can take.
There’s the townhouse with a staircase to nowhere, a ghostly remnant of the home’s bizarre history. And the used car the author, a dedicated Londoner, bought upon getting her driver’s license at the age of 35 after too being frustrated for too long by trains that didn’t reach the hamlets she hankered to roam. Not to mention the journey where the author met a group of Sussex folks who are Cryonicists, i.e., those who plan to be frozen upon death in hopes they’ll be unfrozen when small problems like disease and old age are cured.
The book is an enchanting mix of ghost stories, misty ruins of past glory and the kindness of people who serve as unintended tour guides.
Quiet, funny, observant, the book rolls through one short essay after another about the author’s travels through life, both real and metaphysical. Most of the adventures take place with her husband, Dave, in their native country of England. They travel at odd times of year for odd reasons and meet odd, but colorful, people. And many of their wanderings involve once-grand, now spooky homes.
Though most of the tellings are humorous portrayals of strange moments, the author proves a deft hand at using such occasions to highlight the offbeat and profound twists and turns life can take.
There’s the townhouse with a staircase to nowhere, a ghostly remnant of the home’s bizarre history. And the used car the author, a dedicated Londoner, bought upon getting her driver’s license at the age of 35 after too being frustrated for too long by trains that didn’t reach the hamlets she hankered to roam. Not to mention the journey where the author met a group of Sussex folks who are Cryonicists, i.e., those who plan to be frozen upon death in hopes they’ll be unfrozen when small problems like disease and old age are cured.
The book is an enchanting mix of ghost stories, misty ruins of past glory and the kindness of people who serve as unintended tour guides.
March 15, 2021
I love holidays and weekends in the UK, and so does Roz Morris, which made this a perfect book for me! Although she likes (?) November breaks, and I'm usually snuggled up, firmly at home that time of year. There are a couple of warm, summer foreign trips too though - I think she deserved them.
While I've been to several of the places in this book, I hadn't known about all the quirky buildings which are offered up as holiday lets. I plan to search them out, and maybe find some of my own.
The stories in this short book are hilarious and - when it comes to family reminiscences - poignant. A great book for anyone who loves the quirky UK.
While I've been to several of the places in this book, I hadn't known about all the quirky buildings which are offered up as holiday lets. I plan to search them out, and maybe find some of my own.
The stories in this short book are hilarious and - when it comes to family reminiscences - poignant. A great book for anyone who loves the quirky UK.
April 10, 2018
The subtitle of Not Quite Lost is: travels without a sense of direction. Some tales in Not Quite Lost are about travels and adventures with an unreliable car being the awkward companion threatening to spoil the fun. Roz and Dave seem to gamely set off on their holidays to stay in architectural gems in the English countryside or seaside at a time of year when most of us are hiding under the duvet. The author's wit and British sense of humour are reflected in her well-crafted prose. But Not Quite Lost is as much memoir as it is a travel book, with shades of light and dark. The opening story, Eve of Destruction: A Childhood Home is deeply moving – as much of an insight into the fractured lives of the family home's inhabitants as it is about the destruction of a house.
My favourite tale in this collection is I Came to Find Her - about a chance encounter between the author out riding her horse and a young lost hiker hoping to surprise the girl of his dreams.
Not Quite Lost is should be required reading for anyone keen to pursue a writing life. It tells the tale of a bookish child, who despite the trials of childhood, makes her way in the world. She takes part in a flash-mob dance routine and ditches her safe writing job as a bestselling ghost writer to becoming a writer on her terms.
My favourite tale in this collection is I Came to Find Her - about a chance encounter between the author out riding her horse and a young lost hiker hoping to surprise the girl of his dreams.
Not Quite Lost is should be required reading for anyone keen to pursue a writing life. It tells the tale of a bookish child, who despite the trials of childhood, makes her way in the world. She takes part in a flash-mob dance routine and ditches her safe writing job as a bestselling ghost writer to becoming a writer on her terms.
April 28, 2018
It's been a while since I've read Not Quite Lost. Yes, I was curious to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Roz's journeys. Because I had the pleasure of meeting Roz when I took part in her editing class in Venice. She does like to go to unsual and quirky places. 'The lone fishers were still out there in the gloom, huddled with lanterns under their umbrellas like the canopies of stranded jellyfish.' Or ' An ornamental folly built in the 1740's; our home for the week. It resembles a miniature chateau, with tall windows, classical pediments and a roof like the lid of a square teapot.' Describing the roof like the lid of a teapot was different but I know exactly what she means. Or: 'I opened the shutters and saw the thickest cotton-wool mist. As if something had breathed hard on all the windows.' Last but not least, 'Another woman seemed to be a work of 1950's art - a hairstyle like a curled helmet and lips like a vermillion snapdragon.' My favourite chapter was about her taking part in a flash mob and the saddest was about losing her family home. She managed, in that chapter, to convey a lot between the lines. The chapters are perfect for quick reads whenever you have time to spare and they take you on a journey too. That's never a bad thing. I absolutely recommend this book.
October 8, 2017
I really enjoyed journeying with Roz Morris. She brings to life the trouble, adventure and unique experiences that come to those willing to ask the next question, go round the next corner, or up that antique spiral staircase. She has a novelists keen eye for detail and sees romance and drama in everyday encounters. By narrating her eccentric characters and places with generosity, wit and evident fondness she brings them to life without creating caricatures.
The thread that holds these 'travels without a sense of direction' together is of course Morris herself. It is in allowing the reader to glimpse very personal moments of her own life – lingering over images of her childhood home, quiet and sometimes hectic moments with her husband and her journey towards becoming a self published author that Roz draws the reader in and keeps them turning the pages of her book.
This is the first book by Roz Morris that I have read and the first thing I did when I had finished was to go and buy one of her novels.
The thread that holds these 'travels without a sense of direction' together is of course Morris herself. It is in allowing the reader to glimpse very personal moments of her own life – lingering over images of her childhood home, quiet and sometimes hectic moments with her husband and her journey towards becoming a self published author that Roz draws the reader in and keeps them turning the pages of her book.
This is the first book by Roz Morris that I have read and the first thing I did when I had finished was to go and buy one of her novels.
October 16, 2017
I hope this book finds the audience is deserves - it is a joy to read. I felt like I was having a genial conversation with the author on a pleasant walk, meandering around at leisure, enjoying the stories which were brought to life by the wonderful imagery. Not a tired metaphor in sight, I am delighted to say. Undercut by a slightly dry, almost laconic tone, especially in the scenes featuring the wing man (hi Dave), the book has at times an elegiac tone (reminiscing on old houses, former homes) and at others you feel the creeping silent fear of self doubt. But the author doesn’t shrink from a challenge, and her relentless and cheerful curiosity leads her – and us – on a journey through out of season seaside towns, vehicular mishaps, married life and all. More please!
February 13, 2018
Not Quite Lost, by Roz Morris, is a travel diary written with an underlying sense of fun. Each of the places the author visits is recounted as a series of anecdotes such as one might share with a friend on a night out. It is a wryly humorous account of the author’s travels, mainly in the UK out of season. She is drawn to places with a quiet history, which she seeks out and shares. The stories are packed with an eye for the unusual in people and place. What could be seen as an unpleasant walk, a challenging drive or disappointing accommodation, becomes an adventure when viewed through her droll and enquiring lens.
The book opens with news of a demolished childhood home, which leads to an on line journey back into Morris’s own history. She investigates the property’s provenance and recalls her personal experiences as a resident. This sets the tone for many of the following tales. Wherever she stays, even if only for a few days, she wishes to understand the background to her surroundings, and how it came to be whatever it is today.
There are a few journeys abroad: to Paris where the language barrier renders her and her typically voluble partner mute; to Mexico where they get married without understanding a word that is being said; and to Italy where she experiences an earthquake whilst in the company of friends. These stories have been honed in the telling, affecting experiences turned into entertaining tales.
Travels around England are less traumatic but no less engaging. Some of the adventures occur due to a reliance on public transport, others are set later after a car has been acquired. This freedom to travel anywhere, and to stop at will, provides a new set of challenges and ensuing escapades. These are exacerbated when a Satnav takes them on routes best avoided by a not fully confident driver.
Encounters with tour guides, locals and other tourists provide snapshots of stories whose end the reader is left to ponder. The author prefers roads less travelled and observes the surrounding scattered history as she passes through. She recounts incidents that defy explanation, the strangeness of people and their predilections. The cryonicists of East Sussex were particularly weird.
Morris is a successful ghost writer seeking new experiences. One of these occurred when she successfully auditioned as a dancer for a commercial. Although challenging it proved that she could rise above her self imposed limitations. This inspired her to write more under her own name.
The final chapter details the places the author stayed in each of the tales recounted. Given the stories she has told the appeal of these is somewhat dubious. What is clear though is the fun to be had when determined to seek out possibilities. I laughed out loud many times while reading these recollections, and now look forward to enjoying my own next adventure armed with a fresh perspective.
The book opens with news of a demolished childhood home, which leads to an on line journey back into Morris’s own history. She investigates the property’s provenance and recalls her personal experiences as a resident. This sets the tone for many of the following tales. Wherever she stays, even if only for a few days, she wishes to understand the background to her surroundings, and how it came to be whatever it is today.
There are a few journeys abroad: to Paris where the language barrier renders her and her typically voluble partner mute; to Mexico where they get married without understanding a word that is being said; and to Italy where she experiences an earthquake whilst in the company of friends. These stories have been honed in the telling, affecting experiences turned into entertaining tales.
Travels around England are less traumatic but no less engaging. Some of the adventures occur due to a reliance on public transport, others are set later after a car has been acquired. This freedom to travel anywhere, and to stop at will, provides a new set of challenges and ensuing escapades. These are exacerbated when a Satnav takes them on routes best avoided by a not fully confident driver.
Encounters with tour guides, locals and other tourists provide snapshots of stories whose end the reader is left to ponder. The author prefers roads less travelled and observes the surrounding scattered history as she passes through. She recounts incidents that defy explanation, the strangeness of people and their predilections. The cryonicists of East Sussex were particularly weird.
Morris is a successful ghost writer seeking new experiences. One of these occurred when she successfully auditioned as a dancer for a commercial. Although challenging it proved that she could rise above her self imposed limitations. This inspired her to write more under her own name.
The final chapter details the places the author stayed in each of the tales recounted. Given the stories she has told the appeal of these is somewhat dubious. What is clear though is the fun to be had when determined to seek out possibilities. I laughed out loud many times while reading these recollections, and now look forward to enjoying my own next adventure armed with a fresh perspective.
May 13, 2022
Not Quite Lost is part travelogue, part biography, part pean to the idea of just "getting away" somewhere with no real purpose in mind but history at hand. Each chapter (with one exception) revolves around a trip to a historic locale — houses rented out by the UK's Landmark Trust — and delivers anecdotes of what happened there. But this is more than a book of travel incidents, Morris is fascinated with the history wrapped up in the architecture, the lives of the people who have passed through the places she stays, and how they touch on her own past, childhood, career, and future.
Having stayed in a verity of Landmark trust properties myself, I love the feeling she has captured, of being cut adrift from the present day world and steeped in the meaningfulness of place. Trust properties tend to be cut off, wi-fi and phone-reception-less, furnished with remnants of old owners, and stocked with visitors books that cover decades of tenants. Morris' anecdotes feel like they belong in those books, or have oozed out of them, merging past, place, and her own life, into one.
Having stayed in a verity of Landmark trust properties myself, I love the feeling she has captured, of being cut adrift from the present day world and steeped in the meaningfulness of place. Trust properties tend to be cut off, wi-fi and phone-reception-less, furnished with remnants of old owners, and stocked with visitors books that cover decades of tenants. Morris' anecdotes feel like they belong in those books, or have oozed out of them, merging past, place, and her own life, into one.
July 16, 2020
In Not Quite Lost, Travels without a Sense of Direction, Roz Morris provides a series of well-written short essays that discuss those usually unheralded places that exist a few exits or a few stops away. Her England features buildings transformed (but rarely perfected) by time, places nearly impossible to reach by train, hilltop buildings which defy easy climbs, and lots of quick sketches of people she and her husband encounter along the way. This is a good book for anyone, like me, who enjoys visiting the out-of-the-way places better than over-crowded stop. As a side note, I last year found myself hiking on a trail from Craven Arms in Shropshire trying to find Stokesay Castle, only to find myself instead in the middle of a grain field staring at a wooden sign that accurately said "Hill and Dales Trail". I found her essay on also walking to Stokesay Castle of particular interest.
This book is well-written, a good and breezy read, relatable and amusing. I enjoyed it very much.
This book is well-written, a good and breezy read, relatable and amusing. I enjoyed it very much.
June 2, 2018
When they say life is an adventure, some people experience more adventure than others. When taking trips, whether it’s down the road or three hundred miles away, there’s a million different things that could happen.
In Not Quite Lost, the author takes the reader on a journey just like that. It’s narrated with wonderful little anecdotes, and is much more organized than someone telling a story face-to-face. Everything from a memorable house, to broken windows, to icy road trips, cryonics, and dances dressed as construction workers, all the stories are told like prose, with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor threaded throughout. It was like an unobtrusive peek into someone else’s life, with more information and entertainment than an actual memoir.
In Not Quite Lost, the author takes the reader on a journey just like that. It’s narrated with wonderful little anecdotes, and is much more organized than someone telling a story face-to-face. Everything from a memorable house, to broken windows, to icy road trips, cryonics, and dances dressed as construction workers, all the stories are told like prose, with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor threaded throughout. It was like an unobtrusive peek into someone else’s life, with more information and entertainment than an actual memoir.
March 15, 2019
Roz takes us on a journey through rural England (with a couple of detours to more exotic places) and captures the spirit of her adventures through her writing. On a couple of occasions, I laughed out loud, but I won’t include any spoilers here. If you want to discover the funniest moments, you will have to read it yourself. She seems to have discovered many interesting holiday homes along the way, some of which are more challenging and remote than others.
I think that one of the reasons that I enjoyed this book so much is because it took me back to holidays past and reminded me of some of the surprises that awaited us when a holiday home did not live up to its description. This is a light-hearted and amusing read and I would highly recommend it.
I think that one of the reasons that I enjoyed this book so much is because it took me back to holidays past and reminded me of some of the surprises that awaited us when a holiday home did not live up to its description. This is a light-hearted and amusing read and I would highly recommend it.
June 21, 2020
I read this in one sitting this evening and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would describe as auto-biographic more so than travel guide, with gentle underpinning theme that there is nowt as strange as folk. There was much to relate to, whether being a cultural fish out of water in a European country, attempting to drive to obscure places, optimum temperature arguments, Public Sector corporate twaddle, childish humour and sense of fun. This would be a perfect book to pick up at an airport, whether for the in-flight read or lounging in the sun of an afternoon.
I'd also heartily recommend the author's last novel, Lifeform Three, being possibly the best sci-fi I've read in the last few years.
I'd also heartily recommend the author's last novel, Lifeform Three, being possibly the best sci-fi I've read in the last few years.
October 8, 2017
This is a series of essays on travel and holidays, many taken in the off-season and some in the very quirky accommodation provided by the Landmark Trust. We’ve all had holidays like this, though maybe not in such surroundings, but the eye of the writer picks out detail and expresses it stylishly. By its very nature, the book was a little ‘bitty’ but the text provided the opportunity to go back to the table of contents. You can read these in any order, and as the mood takes you. A lovely, well crafted set of true-life observations.
January 19, 2018
This is just such a lovely little book that can be read over and over again and one that I will certainly take with me when I am flying or on a long train journey. Every anecdote is a treat. Reading this has made me think I should actually stop reading (even for just for a moment) to take a peek over a wall or hedge and wonder what is on the other side. Gorgeous.
November 13, 2019
There's definitely a touch of the Bill Byson's about this book. And that's not exactly a bad thing. Not if you had his bank balance anyway. But Roz Morris' NOT QUITE LOST invokes a quaint nostalgia on Old Albion in her selection of travel writing musings that's definitely worth a try. You have Glastonbury, Cryogenics and flash mobs. From Venice to Porlock. What more could you ask for?
January 8, 2018
Engaging
An enjoyable, airy little book with anecdotes of travel with her husband. The ending was abrupt - she just ran out of tales and boom, the book was done. That was kind of jarring.
An enjoyable, airy little book with anecdotes of travel with her husband. The ending was abrupt - she just ran out of tales and boom, the book was done. That was kind of jarring.
October 9, 2018
Training to Entertaining
Having read and loved a couple of the Nail Your Novel series publications. It was decided to try some of this fantastic Authors non-tutorial work. I was not disappointed and look forward to reading all of her pieces. A+ Roz!
Having read and loved a couple of the Nail Your Novel series publications. It was decided to try some of this fantastic Authors non-tutorial work. I was not disappointed and look forward to reading all of her pieces. A+ Roz!
January 13, 2019
Travels around England.
A lovely, conversational, humorous tone.
Some memorable moments, such as one of the stone balls from the front gates pillar rolling down the hill, and the inevitable chase after it.
A quick but tasty read.
I would read another by this author.
A lovely, conversational, humorous tone.
Some memorable moments, such as one of the stone balls from the front gates pillar rolling down the hill, and the inevitable chase after it.
A quick but tasty read.
I would read another by this author.
September 13, 2019
I believe this is a great book if you are looking for an easy read with some funny anecdotes. I was a bit disappointed primarily because I was expecting more depth and a bit more of a red line between the different diary entries. I am not saying this is a bad book, however, it was not for me.
September 7, 2019
Roz takes us on a delightful journey to unexpected places with a delightful English and grump husband Dave. I laughed many times and enjoyed the crafted wit of each sentence as a fine meal. I took my time reading this so I could savour the many gems of observation. Well worthwhile!
September 18, 2019
Not Quite Lost was a wry, funny and engaging read especially enjoyable when travelling as I was in the UK when the unexpected events of travel are front of mind. A memoir of the surprising and unusual written in short excerpts of different adventures, it’s a good laugh and reminder to experience, notice and take note when travelling. The everyday experiences we encounter then are often great insights into human behaviour and personality as Roz Morris has deftly shown us in this quirky collection of stories
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