TITLE: Expat Life Slice by Slice
AUTHOR: Apple Gidley
AUTHOR’S CYBER COORDINATES:
Website: www.expatapple.com
Blog: my.telegraph.co.uk/applegidley
Twitter: @ExpatApple
PUBLICATION DATE: March 2012 (Summertime Publishers)
FORMAT: Ebook (Kindle) and Paperback, available from Amazon
GENRE: Memoir
SOURCE: Review copy from author
Author Bio:
Apple Gidley became an expat at the tender age of one month old, in Kano, Nigeria. Since her early initiation into global wandering, she has relocated 26 times through 12 countries, acquiring a husband and two children en route.
Apple is known to thousands as ExpatApple, through her popular blog at the Daily Telegraph.
Summary:
“From marauding monkeys to strange men in her bedroom, from Africa to Australasia to America, with stops in Melanesia, the Caribbean and Europe along the way, Apple Gidley vividly sketches her itinerant global life. The challenges of expatriation, whether finding a home, a job, or a school are faced mostly with equanimity. Touched with humour and pathos, places come alive with stories of people met and cultures learned, with a few foreign faux pas added to the mix.”
(Source: Amazon.com book description)
Review:
If anyone is qualified to issue advice on expat life, Apple Gidley is that person. Born to an English father and Australian mother, she takes the label “Serial Expat” to new heights. She was a TCK before the term was invented (instead classed unflatteringly as an “expat brat”) and continued the global wandering throughout her adult life, with 26 relocations through 12 countries to date.
Her memoir provides fascinating reading, about places and lifestyles that most of us will never experience, and at times is almost anachronistic: reading her reminiscences about servants, voluntary work, and charity committees, there’s a time warp sensation of stepping into a Somerset Maugham short story.
Although the book is a record of Apple’s patchwork life, most expats will relate to the emotional experiences she describes, no matter where in the world they are or how many countries they’ve lived in. For example, we worry that leaving our family and friends behind will increase the emotional distance as well as the physical. After a while, we realise that this is mostly not the case, and that those who allow physical distance to become an obstacle weren’t so emotionally close in the first place. In Chapter 8, “Eighth Slice: Staying Connected”, she says:
As we age we draw closer still. We believe in family but do not see each other for years at a time, and yet we are all aware of where each of us is in the world, still scattered and testaments to a global upbringing.
In “Ninth Slice: Death at a Distance”, Apple deals with the elephant-in-the-room topic: the illness or death of a family member while we are thousands of miles away. During such times, it’s easy to beat ourselves up for choosing a nomadic lifestyle; if our associated guilt trips were eligible for air miles, we could afford to fly back and forth to be with our loved ones as often as we wanted. In describing her own experiences of bereavement, Apple’s practical, matter-of-fact approach, plus her insights gleaned from other cultures’ attitudes to old age and death, reminds us that the old cliché of “life goes on” holds true, even after “death at a distance”.
Whether you’re a veteran expat, a re-pat, or are just about to embark upon your first move to another country, “Expat Life Slice By Slice” should be on your reading list.
Words of wisdom:
On TCKs:
For those children brought up as TCKs…a nonjudgmental and accepting attitude to different customs, colours and cultures is the norm. As this demographic grows, let’s hope for an even greater understanding of cultural differences for all our children.
On voluntary work:
Volunteering is work, sometimes harder than a paid position because it is the cause keeping you there and not the salary.
On making new connections:
Picking up people around the world to share your life with is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and sometimes you know straight away they will continue to stay in it.
On “Home”
Home is with me wherever I go…It is not a single building or a single country, but many of them.
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STAY TUNED for Wednesday’s post.
Image: Book cover – “Expat Life Slice By Slice”
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The Displaced Nation 
I’d love to own a copy, but couldn’t find a link to a digital version? Sounds just the kind of book I could really relate to.
Helenaxx
Wow! Sounds so interesting, I immediately downloaded to my Kindle so I look forward to reading on my upcoming plane journey across the pond. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Helena – One of the dilemmas in reviewing books for a global website is deciding where to link to those books! Here’s the UK Kindle link:
I’m an Expat, but have only moved from one country to another. Having said that, I still related to a lot of Apple’s emotions, and lived vicariously through her many exciting adventures. It’s a wonderful read and contains some very wise words indeed!
12 countries!! Yikes, sounds both exhilarating and exhausting!
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