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The Tent, the Bucket and Me
Growing up in the Seventies, we were on the brink of the modern age. But despite a brave new world of Casio hand-held calculators and digital watches, one thing remained the same: the family holiday. For the Seventies child, summer holidays didn't mean the joy of CentreParcs or the sophistication of a Tuscan villa. They meant being crammed into a car with Grandma and heading to the coast. With just a tent for a home and a bucket for the necessities, we would set off on new adventures each year stoically resolving to enjoy ourselves.
For Emma Kennedy, and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went. Whether it was swept away by a force ten gale on the Welsh coast or suffering copious amounts of food poisoning on a brave trip to the south of France, family holidays always
left them battered and bruised.
But they never gave up. Emma's memoir, The Tent, the Bucket and Me,
is a painfully funny reminder of just what it was like to spend your summer holidays cold, damp but with sand between your toes.
For Emma Kennedy, and her mum and dad, disaster always came along for the ride no matter where they went. Whether it was swept away by a force ten gale on the Welsh coast or suffering copious amounts of food poisoning on a brave trip to the south of France, family holidays always
left them battered and bruised.
But they never gave up. Emma's memoir, The Tent, the Bucket and Me,
is a painfully funny reminder of just what it was like to spend your summer holidays cold, damp but with sand between your toes.
346 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
172 people are currently reading
1894 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 456 reviews
March 31, 2012
I laughed until I could not breathe. I would have died laughing except that I wanted to finish the book.
August 4, 2016
I'm worried there might be something wrong with me. The majority of people, when speaking or writing about this book, describe it as laugh-out-loud. I'm afraid that, whilst I'll admit that some of the author's family escapades were amusing in places, I didn't exactly find them hilarious. I don't know if it's that some of the stuff I was being asked to chuckle at was a little puerile, although I'm not against being a bit immature occasionally. In all honesty I think it's that the book was coloured for me very early on. The author describes an incident, completely unrelated to camping, that, whilst offered as a bit of light-hearted triviality regarding the naughtiness of young boys, actually read to me - as a trained youth worker - as the cry for help from someone who was quite likely a victim of sexual abuse. To offer something so disturbing as a piece of 'fluff' comedy, left a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the book. It's a shame really because as someone who was taken on camping holidays every year throughout most of the eighties, I could have really enjoyed a bit of homely nostalgia.
October 10, 2015
I loved every minute of this book, it eked out the last drops of Summer for me (I realise I'm in denial there!). There were many times reading this book, where I irritated my husband by actually guffawing!
It isn't some piece of great literature, but it is marvellous.
It isn't some piece of great literature, but it is marvellous.
March 30, 2011
A couple of years ago, I went to the launch of Emma Kennedy's first book; How To Bring Up Your Parents. I had a great time and got drunk with the stars of stage and screen. Emma was absolutely lovely and the book was very funny.
However... last year I received an advance copy of her second book, The Tent, The Bucket and Me - an extremely funny book following Emma's family camping holidays in the 1970s.
It's rare that I laugh out loud whilst reading but the first family holiday had me in stitches. I'm astonished that they tried again - but they did. And I'm glad. If they hadn't this would be a much shorter book. If you've ever been camping, or had holiday disasters, read this. You'll know exactly where she's coming from! She writes with a real flair for comedy and I finished it in a couple of days as I just couldn't put it down for very long.
Anyway, the official publication of the book is the 26th of March and I urge you to get a copy. It's a really entertaining read and well worth buying. However if you need some encouragement first, Emma has just finished recording an abridged version for Radio 4's Book of the Week slot which will be broadcast from March 23rd...
However... last year I received an advance copy of her second book, The Tent, The Bucket and Me - an extremely funny book following Emma's family camping holidays in the 1970s.
It's rare that I laugh out loud whilst reading but the first family holiday had me in stitches. I'm astonished that they tried again - but they did. And I'm glad. If they hadn't this would be a much shorter book. If you've ever been camping, or had holiday disasters, read this. You'll know exactly where she's coming from! She writes with a real flair for comedy and I finished it in a couple of days as I just couldn't put it down for very long.
Anyway, the official publication of the book is the 26th of March and I urge you to get a copy. It's a really entertaining read and well worth buying. However if you need some encouragement first, Emma has just finished recording an abridged version for Radio 4's Book of the Week slot which will be broadcast from March 23rd...
October 23, 2019
funny memoir of holidays in the tent and aboard and all the mishaps
October 1, 2010
You know how it's often claimed that books are "laugh out loud" and then when you come to read them they're nothing of the sort, not even a snigger? This book actually did make me laugh out loud. And I was on the train at the time. And I got some very odd looks. But anyway, if these stories are true then they must have been just about the unluckiest family to ever go on holiday anywhere. I've never been camping but as a kid I was forced to spend many summer holidays stuck in a tiny caravan with my family so for me this book was somewhat nostalgic (the geek in me loved the Star Wars references, too) and genuinely funny. The only criticism I really have is that I couldn't understand why the author kept referring to her parents by their names rather than just calling them mum and dad. Is it a middle class thing? Also, the reference to the pencil incident (you'll find out when you read it) was a bit distasteful and seemed out of place with the rest of the book. All in all though, an undemanding and light-hearted read that I would definitely recommend.
October 10, 2017
Listened to in audio format.
This is an hilarious book written by Emma Kennedy about her and her parents calamitous camping holidays in the UK and France.
This book reminded me of family holidays where everything that could go wrong did. They are terrible at the time but funny when you are safely home.
The book is about her camping holidays from between the ages of 4 and 13 years old. A lot of the stories involve poor young Emma falling into toilets or being covered in poo or vomit. I loved her parents Tony and the long suffering Brenda who dreamed of a glamorous, normal holiday.
My favourite story was when they stayed in a haunted cottage in France. After being kept awake all night by strange knocking sounds Tony went to investigate using Emma's light sabre as a torch. I would advise you to listen at home because you will laugh out loud in places.
This is an hilarious book written by Emma Kennedy about her and her parents calamitous camping holidays in the UK and France.
This book reminded me of family holidays where everything that could go wrong did. They are terrible at the time but funny when you are safely home.
The book is about her camping holidays from between the ages of 4 and 13 years old. A lot of the stories involve poor young Emma falling into toilets or being covered in poo or vomit. I loved her parents Tony and the long suffering Brenda who dreamed of a glamorous, normal holiday.
My favourite story was when they stayed in a haunted cottage in France. After being kept awake all night by strange knocking sounds Tony went to investigate using Emma's light sabre as a torch. I would advise you to listen at home because you will laugh out loud in places.
February 15, 2014
Possibly the funniest book I have ever read
February 2, 2025
I think I was expecting calamities of the laugh out loud kind, as opposed to the why do the holiday gods have it in for us kind!
Wow, these family holidays weren’t just truly awful, they were traumatic. Epic bouts of food poisoning and injury, biblical rain and storms, and encounters with excrement that made my stomach turn. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could be this unlucky. Their collective holiday experiences were awful on a scale I didn’t realise existed, so awful it was hard to find them funny.
Wow, these family holidays weren’t just truly awful, they were traumatic. Epic bouts of food poisoning and injury, biblical rain and storms, and encounters with excrement that made my stomach turn. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could be this unlucky. Their collective holiday experiences were awful on a scale I didn’t realise existed, so awful it was hard to find them funny.
May 6, 2024
This was a good read, although I did think I would laugh more from early reviews. Did bring back memories from camping as a child.
February 4, 2012
‘The Tent, the Bucket and Me’
I don’t usually contemplate this… writing my book review so early as I’ve only managed to read the first three chapters!
Seriously… this book should come with a Health Warning:
Do not attempt to wear mascara or any eye makeup whilst reading this story and ensure that you have ready to hand a constant supply of clean hankies (you will need these I promise) oh and should you suffer from a weak bladder (sorry to bring this up) I would strongly recommend you consider wearing incontinence knickers! There I’ve said it and you might thank me later.
The tone of this story is brilliant and I can promise very accurate. I HATE, LOATHE and DETEST Camping.
Like Emma Kennedy I suffered the indignities of camping all my young life and teenage years, oh the ignominy of it. She has successfully helped me to access and remember many incidents mostly hilarious, and some rather painfully embarrassing moments that I may choose to share in later blog posts.
It is not often I feel that I am so in tune with an author. However on this occasion her descriptions of travelling to Wales ring loud alarm bells in my head, for I too am a girl from the valleys born behind the gasworks, well no not literally, but in my grandmother’s house in Caerphilly, complete with outside carsy and coal bunker the size of a small shed. I feel I’m almost part of Emma’s film set or rather that she was part of mine, really quite scary on so many levels.
I’m not sure who suggested we read this book for our book group meeting but I shall be eternally grateful and I’m very glad they suggested it! Because I can’t recall crying this hard in a long time and I believe that laughing until you cry can be a cathartic experience. Of course the downside of crying whilst reading is that is that one’s eyes fill with tears and blur one’s vision.
I think Emma Kennedy has captured the essence of the 1970’s succinctly because it certainly is how I remember that period of time although I never made it the Biba shop – such a shame truly.
So my recommendation is quite simple: If on an overcast January day when the sky is filled with scumble glazed clouds that are certain to deliver a deluge then I would suggest you find a quiet spot, curl up in an armchair, with a hot chocolate and a box of tissues. And if you dare to read this in a coffee shop then other customers will want to know why you are in fits of giggles. And there is an added and significant danger… you may end up snorting rather loudly too!
Well I’m going back to the book that I can’t actually read as I keep having to put the book down and dabs away the tears with a tissue.
And I do hope you enjoy this reading treat…
I don’t usually contemplate this… writing my book review so early as I’ve only managed to read the first three chapters!
Seriously… this book should come with a Health Warning:
Do not attempt to wear mascara or any eye makeup whilst reading this story and ensure that you have ready to hand a constant supply of clean hankies (you will need these I promise) oh and should you suffer from a weak bladder (sorry to bring this up) I would strongly recommend you consider wearing incontinence knickers! There I’ve said it and you might thank me later.
The tone of this story is brilliant and I can promise very accurate. I HATE, LOATHE and DETEST Camping.
Like Emma Kennedy I suffered the indignities of camping all my young life and teenage years, oh the ignominy of it. She has successfully helped me to access and remember many incidents mostly hilarious, and some rather painfully embarrassing moments that I may choose to share in later blog posts.
It is not often I feel that I am so in tune with an author. However on this occasion her descriptions of travelling to Wales ring loud alarm bells in my head, for I too am a girl from the valleys born behind the gasworks, well no not literally, but in my grandmother’s house in Caerphilly, complete with outside carsy and coal bunker the size of a small shed. I feel I’m almost part of Emma’s film set or rather that she was part of mine, really quite scary on so many levels.
I’m not sure who suggested we read this book for our book group meeting but I shall be eternally grateful and I’m very glad they suggested it! Because I can’t recall crying this hard in a long time and I believe that laughing until you cry can be a cathartic experience. Of course the downside of crying whilst reading is that is that one’s eyes fill with tears and blur one’s vision.
I think Emma Kennedy has captured the essence of the 1970’s succinctly because it certainly is how I remember that period of time although I never made it the Biba shop – such a shame truly.
So my recommendation is quite simple: If on an overcast January day when the sky is filled with scumble glazed clouds that are certain to deliver a deluge then I would suggest you find a quiet spot, curl up in an armchair, with a hot chocolate and a box of tissues. And if you dare to read this in a coffee shop then other customers will want to know why you are in fits of giggles. And there is an added and significant danger… you may end up snorting rather loudly too!
Well I’m going back to the book that I can’t actually read as I keep having to put the book down and dabs away the tears with a tissue.
And I do hope you enjoy this reading treat…
October 9, 2019
Absolutely brilliant! The most laugh out loud book I’ve ever read... well listened to! I literally was crying listening to this story. It’s written by Emma about her camping holidays in the 1070s with her parents. And they are a disaster. After the first few years I was thinking they can’t continue to be troubled, oh but they were! The author does such an amazing job at bringing her misadventures to life. She is energetic and engaging in her tone. She narrates brilliantly. Emma’s father is Welsh and she does the best Welsh accent. This was the highlight for me - it was like listening to an episode of Gavin and Stacey! The first few stories about camping in Wales literally had me hyperventilating with laughter. (Prob because I am Welsh and knew the places she spoke of - having camped/caravaned in places myself) it was so familiar and relatable! I’d highly recommend this as easy going, funny, and entertaining . Do yourself a favour, this is a treat.
April 3, 2014
Reading about someone’s holiday disasters could be amusing but this wasn’t, especially because of an over preponderance of toilet accidents. Childhood memories are too vividly described to be anything but highly embroidered, apocryphal accounts of family folklore. I gave up after three chapters and threw it in the charity box, thankful I’d only paid 50p in the first place. The only good bit, as far as I read, was the account of a visit to their Welsh family (excluding the toilet episode, that is).
March 23, 2021
A very funny book which I decided to read because I loathe camping, and this book re-inforced the reasons why I do! I especially liked the trips to France and the encounter with a 1970's French public toilet, and the subsequent disaster. "Ma fille, est covered in merde!" Pick up this book if you want to laugh out loud!!
Listened on audiobook too. Equally as good!
Listened on audiobook too. Equally as good!
March 6, 2014
Lots of mirror experiences here, read by the engaging author.
September 11, 2014
The constant hysterics of the mother, catalogue of disasters, bodily functions and vomiting were extremely tedious.
May 29, 2025
The Tent, the Bucket and Me is an odd read. Chronicling a decade of Kennedy family holidays that have a recurring theme - something awful occurs to mar the trip - it’s marketed as a laugh-out-loud comedy. Maybe it’s me, but I really didn’t find it all that funny.
From their first camping trip with grandma that is ruined by a force ten gale to a trip to France marred by sunburn, every Kennedy family has a moment that would count as a perfectly justifiable reason for never repeating the experience. Yet every year, the family venture away from home and try again. This isn’t resilience; it’s insanity.
Much of the comedy focuses on sickness or toilet-related disasters. There’s an incident recounted very early on that would seem to be a case of sexual abuse, glossed over in a way that is more than a little concerning. In every holiday the parents are negligent and the lack of awareness they show while travelling abroad is embarrassing. A different time, maybe, but it doesn’t make reading about it feel any more entertaining.
From their first camping trip with grandma that is ruined by a force ten gale to a trip to France marred by sunburn, every Kennedy family has a moment that would count as a perfectly justifiable reason for never repeating the experience. Yet every year, the family venture away from home and try again. This isn’t resilience; it’s insanity.
Much of the comedy focuses on sickness or toilet-related disasters. There’s an incident recounted very early on that would seem to be a case of sexual abuse, glossed over in a way that is more than a little concerning. In every holiday the parents are negligent and the lack of awareness they show while travelling abroad is embarrassing. A different time, maybe, but it doesn’t make reading about it feel any more entertaining.
December 30, 2022
I laughed out loud at the hilarious memoirs of this family and their camping misadventures.
April 4, 2024
Lovely holiday read, especially on a family holiday with the Welsh fam, so my nan was chipping in with stories about camping in the 70s herself lol
December 31, 2016
Enough material for a pretty good twenty minute standup slot, padded out to a quite ludicrous length - I'd managed to procure myself an ex-library Large Print edition which managed to stretch the ordeal out to almost 500pp of agony.
Essentially the young Emma Kennedy goes on holiday with her parents each year in the 1970s, and it's always a disaster. But not usually an actual interesting disaster, oh no; generally it'll be something like "it rained heavily all night" or "we ate some dodgy seafood" or "Dad got into the wrong lane of a French motorway and drivers honked at him", ratcheted up via pages on end of histrionic prose style to something that almost qualifies as "incident". The comedic high point of each chapter is invariably and explosively shit, piss or vomit related, if you like that sort of thing.
On the plus side the writer is clearly quite fond of her vain and bumbling parents and I do get it, you want to write about your family and its adventures before it's all lost forever like tears in a waterlogged campsite. But any hopes of this book having anything much for *me* as opposed to just her were quickly frustrated. I'd hoped for some 1970s colour but all you get is the occasional "Star Wars had just come out so I was carrying a toy lightsaber". I then clung onto the idea that maybe ten years of mediocre family holidays would at least prove character-forming in some way, that there'd be some payoff or enlightenment after so many misadventures, but nope, they just have yet another crap holiday and decide they're never going to go on one again. Much how I'd feel if someone offered me another chapter of an Emma Kennedy book sadly.
Essentially the young Emma Kennedy goes on holiday with her parents each year in the 1970s, and it's always a disaster. But not usually an actual interesting disaster, oh no; generally it'll be something like "it rained heavily all night" or "we ate some dodgy seafood" or "Dad got into the wrong lane of a French motorway and drivers honked at him", ratcheted up via pages on end of histrionic prose style to something that almost qualifies as "incident". The comedic high point of each chapter is invariably and explosively shit, piss or vomit related, if you like that sort of thing.
On the plus side the writer is clearly quite fond of her vain and bumbling parents and I do get it, you want to write about your family and its adventures before it's all lost forever like tears in a waterlogged campsite. But any hopes of this book having anything much for *me* as opposed to just her were quickly frustrated. I'd hoped for some 1970s colour but all you get is the occasional "Star Wars had just come out so I was carrying a toy lightsaber". I then clung onto the idea that maybe ten years of mediocre family holidays would at least prove character-forming in some way, that there'd be some payoff or enlightenment after so many misadventures, but nope, they just have yet another crap holiday and decide they're never going to go on one again. Much how I'd feel if someone offered me another chapter of an Emma Kennedy book sadly.
August 15, 2016
Books that make me cry are rare, but books that make me laugh out loud are a true rarity. This was one of the few in the second category (and I still laugh thinking of the black trash bag situation!).
Here is a view on UK's life in the seventies, how the fact that they joined the EU allowed British citizens to broaden their horizons in terms of holidays, and how much much more difficult it was to travel in the pre-Internet time! Add to that the adventures of a really unlucky family!
Definitely recommended!!
(Got this one from a charity shop.)
Here is a view on UK's life in the seventies, how the fact that they joined the EU allowed British citizens to broaden their horizons in terms of holidays, and how much much more difficult it was to travel in the pre-Internet time! Add to that the adventures of a really unlucky family!
Definitely recommended!!
(Got this one from a charity shop.)
January 5, 2016
Loved this book - so funny and I could actually visualise the predicaments the narrator found herself in. Camping holidays will never be the same again.
July 6, 2009
I really enjoyed this one. It follows a catalogue of disastrous holidays- mainly camping that she 'endured' during the 70's with her family. My daughter has her eye on this book- think she's trying to find some excuses to not go camping!
January 14, 2010
Really enjoyed this - I'm the same age as the author, so the pop-culture references from the '70's were particularly resonant. At times I wasn't quite sure if to laugh or cringe. Poor Emma. I'm so grateful my parents graduated to caravan holidays while I was still quite young!
May 4, 2012
The reviews on the cover said it was funny and I needed cheering up so I gave it a go. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt so it did the job. Makes my childhood camping trips look like stays on five star resorts!!
May 21, 2012
This book was so much fun to read! I actually laughed out loud and cried all at the same time! Hilarious from the start. A perfect summer vacation trip read - especially if you go camping. A good one to also read out loud to others as each chapter is sort of a mini-short story. Loved it!!
August 7, 2013
I laughed until I cried - repeatedly. I couldn't read this on the commuter train because I so often burst into hysterical laughter. (You definitely should read it to yourself with a British accent!)
December 9, 2016
Book Club book. The parents were so likeable and the details of the French campsites and Isle Of Wight trips were so vivid and charming that I really wished each holiday didn't end with someone being sick in a bucket or having explosive diarrhoea. Ah well.
March 27, 2009
A very funny account from a girls perspective of her family's annual camping trips. A quick read that makes you laugh. The parents and the girl are likable without being too good to be true.
September 14, 2010
Hilarious memoirs of Emma's disastrous camping trips with her parents back in the 1970's. Makes you laugh out loud, thoroughly recommended for anyone not just a camping enthusiast
Displaying 1 - 30 of 456 reviews