When CWU members Mary Down and Alan Burnett decided to take Voluntary Redundancy (VR) from the jobs at the Royal Mail’s MDRC in Plymouth they approached Union Learning Rep Gavin Hardie for advice on courses and training available to them.

The couple had already decided to plough their redundancy money into buying a camper van and travelling around Europe. The Royal Mail has a policy of paying for training to those taking VR, and this got Mary and Alan thinking – why not write a book on our experiences.

This gave Gavin an idea what sort of training to suggest and he signposted them to a Copy-Editing and Proof-Reading course in London.

Mary said

I wasn't thinking of writing a book before we went on our travels; we just intended to have a good holiday; a break for myself and a prize for working since I was 16 - I felt I had earned retirement through years of paying my taxes.”

We had both attended a four day Copy-editing and Proof-Reading course at a London University. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and thought we would take the course and then head off for a tour of Europe and then come home and do the 'exam' when we had completed the exercises in Proof-reading."

The trip in their new Bongo didn’t really follow any set plan and took them through Europe seeing countries they had never had a chance to visit. Crossing the Alps in Switzerland, exploring Danish Castles, relaxing at French riverside campsites and being moved by visiting Auschwitz in Poland. Mary explained

When back we completed the 'exam' and sent it off to be marked. It was while waiting the result I had read through our 'travel journal' and said to Alan that we could type it all out and make it into a book.”

Alan takes up the story

The reason I think we decided to write the book 'After The Rain' was that we both enjoyed re-reading our diary notes when we got home, and decided we'd like to share the story with others. Loads of pictures add to the tale. Added to the fact that before we set off on our travels, we did a course.”

We enjoyed our adventure and rather wanted to share it with everyone!"

With this idea in mind Mary researched the cost of applying to a publisher to see how much it would cost, which turned out to be around £1500. They had enough redundancy money to cover this and so set to work typing up their experiences and sent it off to the publishers.

This resulted in a "tongue in cheek" travel guide, After the Rain: A Journey Around Europe by Campervan and follows their story as they travel through countries including Czech Republic, Switzerland and Denmark.

ULR Gavin said

I’m really pleased this turned out so well for Alan and Mary. They have always being active CWU members and when they came to see me and asked for help finding a course little did I realise that this signposting would lead them to publishing a book and being able to tell their story to readers across the world.”

I’ve ordered a copy myself and can’t wait to read about their adventures.

Mary and Alan aren’t sure if “After the Rain” will sell well, or if it will even cover the costs, but as Mary says

Whether it is successful or not we got a book out of our journey, and I have always wanted to write and publish a book of some sort."

The couple are now hoping to embark on a second trip.