Departures: A Guide to Letting Go, One Adventure at a Time

by Anna Hart

'I love Anna's writing, and I adore stories of adventuring women' Dolly Alderton

'Humorous, emotional and useful' Grazia 'A beautiful memoir' Dawn O'Porter 'W arm, witty and gorgeously written' The Pool 'E ven armchair travellers will get a vicarious thrill from Departures ' Red *************** A call-to-action for adventurers everywhere , Departures is about the power of travel to transform us, heal us, challenge us and turn us into everyday adventure-seekers even after we return to the grind back home. Have you ever turned up on a post-heartbreak holiday hopelessly unprepared and been forced to sleep on the floor wrapped up in a curtain ? How about that eagerly-awaited solo adventure when you had to be airlifted home? Or what about the time you went to a fascinating European cultural capital and neglected to visit any of the world-renowned sights because you were in the bar? Well, Anna Hart has been on all those holidays, and more. As an avid traveller and then travel journalist, she's spent most of her working life on a plane somewhere, and over 10 years writing about the places she's ended up. In Departures she brings all of that knowledge together with the signature warmth and wit of her journalism. Anna is here to show that even the experts get it wrong, and how to get it right . . . *************** What readers are saying about Departures : ' I couldn't put this book down. It was frank, funny and thought-provoking' 'A glorious big sister of a book' ' Anna makes you remember your own past adventures at the same time as inspiring new ones' 'This book was an amazing companion on my first solo trip abroad' 'A fascinating and illuminating read, especially for someone who hasn't travelled as much as they would have liked, but is full of wonder for all the places the world has to offer' 'I bought the audio version and ended up listening to Departures . . . 3 TIMES!'

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir

272 pages, Paperback

Published May 23, 2019

Reviews

[Georgia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel so torn by this book. Anna's adventures are incredibly fun and entertaining while highlight interesting aspects of travel - including nostalgia (which I wished she talked about more). However I couldn't shake the idea that she was aggressively delivering the reader a pitch of why she's the perfect traveller, especially compared to everyone else. And after finishing the book I feel like she's trying to fit into the concept of the ‘ideal’ traveller - yes she does yoga, is an eco-warrior, works as a journalist but don't forget she shags everywhere, gets hammered and takes drugs too. She’s trying too hard to be a ‘badass’ and edgy that it comes across as a cliche. One minute she hates the countryside and the next she's the type of traveller who ‘gets her hands dirty up a mountain’. She wants to empathise with the ‘broke’ traveller while describing how glamourous her trips were. At times it felt a little condescending and judgemental even to other travellers. Reading this I felt confused and annoyed yet I loved hearing about the locations. I think she is a good writer and has some amazing stories to tell but I struggled with the delivery.

[Flora Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out enjoying this book, but somewhere along the line the narrative seemed to disappear. It then read much more like a collection of short travel essays more appropriate for the many magazines Anna has written for: there was no real destination for the book, no real plotline nor obvious framework beyond the chronology-style format, and I found myself wanting for an actual story. Her descriptive writing is clearly polished and adept, but it lacks the emotional subtext and progression which I'd expect from a memoir.

[Jamie Klingler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having worked with and been friends with Anna for years, it was fun to read about her globe trotting adventures. I could hear her laugh behind the tales of some of her crazier adventures and thought it was brave to share some of the scarier and rougher parts of traveling alone as well as an insight in to trying to do it all in the grips of depression.

Read it in one day and look forward to experiencing the next chapter with her.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst I enjoyed parts of this book and reading stories of different countries, I do feel it is written from a level of privilege that the author does not realise she has.

This feels more like an autobiography than a "guide" as titled.

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gorgeous book. I felt like a friend along for the journey in all of Anna’s adventures. Loved the travel tips throughout too!

[Yariella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm on a reading roll. This is the third book in a row that I've rated five stars - which is a rarity in my world. I devoured this in just a few days. I think largely because so much of this memoir resonated with my own life - and my own lifelong obsession with travel. Anna "keeps it real" - and talks about the highs and lows of travel. And reminds us that so many of the biggest adventures that we go on in life actually happen from within.

[Lauren Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

As soon as I was a few chapters in I had already experienced several "Yesssss.This!" moments and I knew I would need to write a review for this book. I felt I owed the book a review because so much of it deeply resonated with me and though it's taken me months to write I wanted the time to really do it properly rather than just say 'it was good'.

If I had to sum up the overall feel and message of this book in three phrases they would be:
"Travel is about attitude."
"Change does us good."
"All you really need is yourself."

These are I guess proverbial things I already knew to be true or have learnt through travel myself but that sang out from the pages of the book as beautiful reminders of my own observations and experiences.

While reading I was also solo travelling and not sure where I'd be next so when Anna talks of being a new person on arrival and lone travellers being 'as lonely as they choose to be,' this was something that stayed with me through the months following.

I enjoyed Anna's storytelling immensely. It was both warming and at times laugh-out-loud hilarious. I really feel that she has truly lived out the message that "Adventure isn't about distance covered but about seeing your surroundings with fresh eyes." The way she talks about Margate, a place I have spent a lot of time growing up, made me pause to reflect on how we all see places differently and that we should all try to see familiar places through the eyes of a tourist. I have always tried to see the beauty of the familiar and have gratitude for living by the sea but Anna reminded me there's always room for more of this.

At the end of the book Anna finds home in Margate, a town minutes away from the home I left behind for much needed change. It's funny how one person's need for change from the same old daily routine is another person's perfect change to a new life. I suppose the change is the key- abandoning familiarity for new opportunities for reflection and growth.

I found the pages about women travelling for different reasons to men really interesting. It was a concept I'd not really thought about much before. The statement that our freedom of movement is something our own mothers and grand mothers didn't experience is something it is all too easy to forget but especially now amidst Covid-19 this has definitely made me more grateful and so appreciative of freedom of movement. It's important to have privelege highlighted as we are all finding out.

I can understand why this book might not be for everyone as after all it's a memoir and so it's subjective. However if you go into this read remembering that you don't have to agree with everything an author says, then you won't miss the beautiful golden nuggets that are there for the taking.

I think Anna writes in a poetic way and not everyone will appreciate this. There are some "big words" in there that even as an English graduate I had to look up but there's no embarrassment in that. I took it as a way of expanding my vocabulary. I saw it as an expression of her love and appreciation for the places that she been been. For the places that have changed her. I imagined that the way she writes is the way she speaks and so I decided to look her up . I listened to a podcast of Anna being interviewed and then continued to read the book. This amplified her voice and having a bit more background information I embraced the book and the author even more.

I think people who have said this book is pretentious have missed the point. If you can read this book with an open mind and an open heart you can enjoy its spirit of adventure at the very least. We aren't all the same and it is one person's tale of transformation. No-one can tell a story better than the person who lived it. I don't think that Hart was trying to prove anything and she herself says in an anecdote in the book that 'having something to prove is what turns humans into arseholes.' The power of travel to transform is the point. We have a small glimpse into one such transformation and an invitation to consider our own.

Travel is a way of challenging ourselves and so in a way this book challenges its readers. I felt I was embarking on each journey with the author and realised that I too really enjoy the role of being an outsider which was food for thought. I also related to Hart and her stories on a really personal level which definitely added to my experience of the book. Being divorced and being a similar age, feeling the pressure of careers and starting a family, experiencing depression and anxiety and finding contentment in freedom and simplifying life. I felt that the book was a perfectly timed read for me and couldn't quite believed the amount of overlap in our experiences. For the story to then finish practically in my hometown felt strangely like a message from the universe telling me that anywhere can be home and its most important to be at home within myself.

Writing this review has given me the opportunity to reflect that I too have often used travel as a way to fix myself, perhaps now more than ever and this book was part of my journey in realigning myself.
Thanks for an honest and affectionate memoir Anna! I look forward to reading more of your writing.

[Indy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was attracted to buy this book by its title and descriptions at the back, as well as the content page. It feels like an Eat, Play, Love sort of book that would give you insights on how to travel solo as a female, or coming to terms with yourself in trips of different types.

However, after reading the first chapter, I was filled with disappointment. This book was nothing it projected nor what I expected. Instead, it was a book filled with so-called life stories of a travel writer that happened during her trips at different age. English is a second language to me, but even I found the writing of this “travel writer” mediocre and her vocabulary is very limited. Her editing team should be ashamed of themselves as I could easily spotted more than 10 typos in the book when I was reading it for leisure. Well, maybe writing a book is very different from writing feature articles the author always brags about in the famous magazines or newspapers she worked with. But really, an amateur could do better than this.

But the most disappointing thing is, there is rarely any elements of “letting go” nor “adventure” as stated in the subtitle of the book. All the chapters are filled with author’s self-pity on her younger self, followed by a rather plain and sometimes off-topic narration of her trips at that time of her life, and summarised with cheap “life wisdom” that could hardly be recognised as life wisdom.

I seriously wonder, without the help of PR or the company she works with, how likely the author can finish the trips she mentioned in the book as “fruitful” as described.

By the end of the book, I was really fed up with her tone of self-pity, with a mix of bragging as well as “feminism”. Count the times she said “oh I know women are better for blah blah blah” in unnecessarily situations and you will know what I mean.

I don’t often write long review like this. But if you are thinking about reading this book, you better put it down to save your time and money on it. It is definitely not worth it to read trash written by a bitchy woman who claims to know a lot about travel.

[SK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an easy and enjoyable read. The author writes about her experience as an expat growing up in Singapore and proceeds to write about a variety of destinations, including Thailand, Scotland, Laos, Bali and Namibia. I enjoyed reading about LA, having spent quite a bit of time there myself. She also includes travel tips throughout the book - none of these were really news to me, but to include them is a unique idea that I can't recall encountering in a travel memoir before.

i disagree with some of the other reviewers who say the writing is basic (I've encountered much worse - read my review of the travel memoir 'Into the Exotic'). I found the author a bit self-indulgent in some respects, but hey, life is short and she's certainly had an interesting one so far. Would definitely read her second book, when there is one.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a struggle to get through, I was attracted to it because the author is from my home country of Northern Ireland and it sounded like an empowering read for female travellers. However, I found it to be less about the places visited and more about the author fulfilling her dream of becoming a journalist / feeling sorry for herself. I found the title to be misleading as it is really just a book about the author and not about travel. I also thought it was very negative about Northern Ireland and opinions to be extremely outdated, which would be enough to put anyone off visiting our country for the first time!

[Isha G. K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this speedy travel memoir about a journalist and adventure writer finding herself and letting go in a never-ending list of exotic places. Many of her reflections were incredibly relatable as someone who, also, has spent the last few hours regularly on the road and in the airport. Although admittedly, I really wish I'd seen more places through her eyes (rather than just heard her quote them) or really met her family and friends, who appear very much in the background.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good fun read with a little self-analysis buried deep within-if you you look for it. I particularly loved her description of Namibia-I had a similar experience-it's probably my favourite country of the many I've visited. Also loved the boxes interspersed through the book with practical hints for all travelers (not just solo females).

[Evangeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I particularly liked reading about the writer’s childhood of contrasts between Northern Ireland and Singapore. The writer’s favourite destinations of her adulthood weren't quite as intriguing, and I didn't fully connect with her. I ended up a bit disappointed overall, as seems to be a common theme with travel memoirs unfortunately.

[Claire M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with many parallels to my own life, it was lovely to take a trip down memory lane. A beautiful account of travelling life, going for it, lovely narration from the author. From another Margate lover!

[Kirsty Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even finish it. Anna is funny but I felt bored reading it.
I had to give up after she claimed that Amalfi helped her depression, so much so, she just stopped taking her tablets...
Enough said.

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Anna's story of travel, her attitude to it and honesty about her life and how travel has helped her and been such an important part. There are definitely parts that inspired me but I am afraid that I won't be able to give up certain standards in my travel :)

[Virve Fredman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loistava kirja niille, jotka rakastavat lukea muiden reflektointia matkustamisesta! Kirja koostui kappaleista, jotka keskittyivät eri paikkoihin ja kirjailijan eri elämänvaiheisiin. Kirjailijalla on mielestäni sana todella hyvin hallussa, hän on nokkela kirjoittaja ja kaiken kaikkiaan kirja oli viihdyttävää luettavaa.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book however I felt like the writer was a little snobbish and that put me off her a little and only reason I had to give it 4/5 instead of 5/5

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for the snobbish, definitely for the adventurous. Written like a journalist not a novelist, but fun and exciting to read. Lots of great insight and travel tips. :)

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable stories from a writer who fully appreaciates her good luck with none of the usual jaded attitude of so many travel writers.

[Holly Crocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Travel writing in memoir form - lovely!
Nice size chapters / layout, loved the writing style.
My to-travel-to list has grown even more! Really lovely little read.

[Peter Birbeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read

I liked the blend of autobiography and travel. Also the variety of destinations. I also look forward to Destinations 2.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish

[Anika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by a friend, this was an interesting read for me as I felt I have a lot in common with the author, what with being an expat millennial with a suppressed wanderlust! Anna has my dream job!

[Ellie Pilcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! So easy to read and truly enjoyable. I booked a holiday as soon as I had finished it. Hard-hitting at times but full of self-awareness that I loved.

[Katie (readingwithkt) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the perfect summer read!

When a review copy of Departures landed in my post box last month, I felt like it was exactly what I needed to read at that moment. Departures is a warm, funny, and emotional travel memoir written by highly acclaimed journalist Anna Hart. It’s not a genre I read generally, which is strange given I love to travel. But I immediately loved the book structure: taking on us a journey through Anna's various adventures by focusing on key life moments marked by the place she was most connected to at the time. Anna’s travel stories feel genuine, though I realise at times they hold a hazy nostalgic aura. Saying that, some of her experiences feel so real that you could be living them yourself.

I’ve been thinking a lot about travel lately and day dreaming about the places I might go – the sights, smells and tastes. Anna’s memoir made me want to dare to be even more adventurous, to take more risks and to let go a little more. It came to me at the right time, and I’m grateful to my friends at Little Brown for surprising me with this one!

[Maria Grigoryeva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy holiday read on how travel is making us better people altogether.