Snapshots

by Matthew Lightfoot

PLEASE NOTE- SNAPSHOTS IS NOT A PHOTO BOOK!Matthew Lightfoot attempted to write a book while travelling the world, using thirty years of travel snapshots to jog his memory. His present day adventures take us on a campervan journey across New Zealand, to being castaway on a Fijian Island, then from the mysterious nation of Paraguay, across the high Andes by bus to South America's Pacific coast. Along the way, a series of long forgotten images lead us on a photographic exploration of the author's past adventures around the world. Lightfoot attracts incidents and his tales embark on a fast-paced tour of the people, history, cultures and eccentricities of cities around the globe, as memories are rekindled through photos appearing randomly on a laptop screen. From Kathmandu to Marrakech and Lapland to Mumbai, Snapshots introduces us to an entertaining cast of Transylvanian wolfmen, child goddesses, murderous street urchins and hairless dogs, as the author dodges international terrorists and Sunday morning rioters, gets slapped by a ghost, drinks narcotic mud from a bucket, and is caught up in a bar brawl between the US Navy and an assembly of dwarves. Snapshots is for anyone who loves a traveller's tale, and everyone with a collection of old photos which they rarely look at, but could never throw away. It's two stories in parallel - A journey around the world in 250 days; and a lifetime of memories - a travelling life seen through a camera lens.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 12, 2021

About the author

Born with an insatiable wanderlust and inspired by an addiction to travel writing, but restricted by the demands of a full time job, Matthew Lightfoot set out to explore the world using his annual work holiday allowance.His first book,The Two Week Traveller, tells the tales of his adventures in almost 150 countries.Often described as ‘one of those people that things just happen to’, he lives up to his reputation with a collection of humorous, hair-raising and thought-provoking travel tales that span the entire globe over a period of 30 years.Being chased by rogue elephants and robbed at gunpoint by a stoned policeman; accidentally cycling down an airport runway and getting trapped in a voodoo ceremony are the sort of tales Lightfoot vividly recounts in the Two Week Traveller.

Matthew's second book, Snapshots, describes the round-the-world journey during which he wrote his first book, using thirty years of travel snapshots to jog his memory. His present day adventures take us on a campervan journey across New Zealand, to being castaway on a Fijian Island, then from the mysterious nation of Paraguay, across the countries of the high Andes by bus to South America's Pacific coast. Along the way, a series of long forgotten images lead us on a photographic exploration of the author's past adventures around the world. Lightfoot attracts incidents and his tales embark on a fast-paced tour of the people, history, cultures and eccentricities of cities around the globe, as memories are rekindled through photos appearing randomly on a laptop screen.From Kathmandu to Marrakech and Lapland to Mumbai, Snapshots introduces us to an entertaining cast of Transylvanian wolfmen, child goddesses, murderous street urchins and hairless dogs, as the author dodges international terrorists and Sunday morning rioters, gets slapped by a ghost, drinks narcotic mud from a bucket, and is caught up in a bar brawl between the US Navy and an assembly of dwarves.

Matthew's third book 'Out of the Cage' was published in 2024. After 38 years of employment, the author escaped the confines of corporate life with the intention of travelling the world. Instead of adding to his adventures in 150 countries, he found his movements restricted by the lockdowns imposed in response to the Covid pandemic.Nearly three years after leaving work he finally set forth again to discover whether it's still possible to travel independently and unplanned in a post-Covid world.
Whether travelling through Europe in a motorhome, or South East Asia and India by dilapidated buses, overnight trains and slow-boats, Matthew continues to attract the incidents and adventures featured in his first books. This time though, the travel style is slow, long term, unplanned and on a budget...what could possibly go wrong?


The author's fourth book is a departure from the format of his earlier work. The Art of Part Time Travel is a guide to making the most of your annual holiday. It's not so much what he did, as how he did it! Matthew utilised every possible trick and hack to maximise use of his precious holiday days and now he shares the knowledge gleaned over 30+ years of travelling the world. Master the Art of Part Time Travel and start planning the trip you always dreamed of taking but thought that you just didn't have time!

Matthew Lightfoot's books aim to inform as well as to entertain, and combine richly detailed story telling with evocative descriptions which transport the reader to off-the-beaten-track locations around the globe. His books are for anyone who loves to travel, whether on a two week work break or a round-the-world odyssey, and, most of all, for everyone who knows that the journey is as important as the destination.

Facebook page -The Two Week Traveller Book features videos and photos from Matthew's adventures.
You can also follow him on Twitter and Instagram @2WeekTraveller.

Reviews

[Luke White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spotted this book on Amazon having enjoyed the author's first book Two Week Traveller. I'm interested in campervan travel and read that the book includes an account of a campervan journey across New Zealand so decided to give it a go. The book describes a round the world trip from NZ to Asia and South America, with the author trying to use old travel photos to jog his memory while writing Two Week Traveller. There are adventures aplenty, both from the recent trip, but also prompted from the travel snapshots which stretch back over 30 years. The book is a collection of tales - some scary, others funny, all delivered with an element of factual information on the countries involved which I found interesting. I also liked the fact that the old travel photos are included in the book. It was good to see the snapshot then read the story associated with it. I enjoyed the book as it covered places I've never even heard of, let alone been to, such as Paraguay and Guyana, though after reading the book, maybe I'll keep it that way!

[John Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was slightly concerned that the book covers two concurrent stories- it describes a year of travel around the world but also crosses over to travel flashbacks prompted by random photographs appearing on the author's laptop screen covering his travels in previous years. In spite of my initial misgivings, the book flowed well and the stories complimented each other. As with his previous book, The Two Week Traveller, the author gets into a number of scrapes on his adventures around the world. What I particularly enjoy is that the chapters tend to be short and can be read in bite sized chunks. The style of writing is descriptive, enabling the reader to really experience a country and feel like they're there with the author. The tales are sometimes funny, sometimes interesting from a historic or cultural point of view and sometimes quite thought provoking. A good travel book which I enjoyed.