AustLit

''A holiday is a time when you do lovely things that you never get a chance to really do otherwise.' So Iris McInnes told her youngest son, William, as she tried to explain the meaning of a holiday.

This book is about the Australian love affair with holidays. It's about going away and staying at home. It's about the relaxing times you had as a kid, escapes you have with your children and the stories you hear from your friends. It can be about a romantic sunset, the spare seat at breakfast being taken by an attractive stranger, a miraculous airline upgrade - or missing bags, unfortunate rashes and wrong turns that lead to places you definitely did not intend to go. But most of all it's about being in your backyard in an above-ground pool, floating in circles, staring at the clouds as you go round and round, and knowing as you float that life is sweet because you're on holidays. ' (Publication summary)