Award-winning actor, writer and comedian Jack Whitehall is the author of this very funny “How to.." book about the trials of family holidays - a natural follow-on to the five Netflix series Travels with My Father he made with his dad, retired theatrical agent Michael Whitehall. Jack has written most of the book packed with so many one-liners that it could be delivered direct from stage. His parents Hilary and Michael's contributions are written with less pace, as though penning an amusing letter to a friend, but are no less hilarious and appear as testimony against the accusations made by Jack relating to holiday traumas. The chapter list in itself was enough to bring me out in a cold sweat - Packing and Passports, Travel Games and Cultural Etiquette to name but a few. Perhaps inevitably the book is also an exploration of the differences between generations, never more under stress than on a family holiday. Michael comes across as a curmudgeonly traditional Conservative, Jack his critical worldly son and Hilary being occasionally embarrassing but mostly holding the whole thing together. They are certainly a well-travelled family with stories to tell from Cumbria to Cambodia, which invariably seem to involve alcohol at some stage or another. Jack Whitehall writes well and with the skill of a true comedian, able to describe scenes that we can all relate to which speak to our anxieties and make us laugh at ourselves. This book made me recall the pressure that is created by a family holiday - they can be expensive, they can be intense, they can feel claustrophobic, they can include mortifying moments.. but in the end of course the pressure is there because of how important they are to the fabric of a family. This is a great holiday read, unless of course you’re there with the kids.
One part Lonely Planet, one part tell-all family memoir, this is the definitive and hilarious guide on how to survive your family holiday, by Jack Whitehall, with a little bit of help from Michael and Hilary Whitehall.
No one family has more experience of travelling together than the Whitehalls. Indeed they've been allowing us a window to their escapades for the past five years in the hit Netflix show 'Travels with my Father' and in this hilarious book they have now decided to pool their advice for fellow travellers. To lay out the pitfalls of family holidays. The dos and don'ts, the highs and lows. In doing so they are sharing some of their best anecdotes. Their most extreme experiences and their most valuable advice. It is part memoir of family life, part travel guide, and full on, laugh-out-loud funny.
Whatever your version of holiday preparation the truth is always this: if it is with one's own family, no amount of sunshine, wine or holiday spirit will stop your worst character traits coming to the surface. You have just volunteered to spend a week in close proximity with the people who know you best and who will never ever let you forget a f***-up. No one survives unscathed. Things are always going to end in tears, you can only hope they're of laughter.
