Susan Griffith's new book is packed with ideas, advice and inspiring tales for over-25s who want to take time out. She took some time out herself to talk to us about careergaps, travel writing, and how her research gave her itchy feet...

In this section:

<< Back to Career Gappers  Career gappers taking over the world  Working with animals  Care work in South Africa  Career break as a football coach  Water relief project in Kenya  I became a tribal chief...  Friends for life  Fulfilling a dream  Forty and fed up  Careergap opportunities with PGL  Working in a safari lodge  Working in a safari camp  My careergap journey  Teaching in Ghana  Career gapping round the world: Viv McLaughlin  Never too old to backpack: Karen Batchelor  Interview with... Richard Bradley, Ghana volunteer  Back to reality: James Prince  A family gap in France  Climbing Mount Aconcagua  Author interview: The Career Break Book  Author interview: Gap Years for Grown Ups  A musical careergap  Volunteering overseas  Why I don't keep cats...  A careergap Downunder  A biker on the road  Around the World with the missus  Careergap in Patagonia  Emigrating to Australia  Cycling Chile  Around the world at 48

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Name: Susan Griffith Age: not young, not old Occupation: freelance travel writer and editor Hi Susan, so tell us a bit about your new book, ‘Gap Years for Grown Ups’. What sort of things does it cover? The book is aimed at anyone who has been in work for a few years (or for a great many years) who from time to time toys with the idea of taking a major break - not necessarily for a whole year but three or more months. The first part of the book encourages people to take the plunge and gives strategies for making it happen. The next chapter details all the nitty-gritty matters that have to be tackled like renting out your house, accessing your bank account abroad, insurance, health precautions and so on. The heart of the book canvases the multitude of projects, activities and trips that grown-ups can consider doing during their break from work, whether travelling or working, volunteering or studying abroad. The book incorporates the stories and experiences of real adult gappers, ranging from a lawyer in her late 20s who spent three months in a law office in Belize to a retired couple who spent their gap year in Florence studying Italian and art. Have you travelled much yourself? I have been very lucky in the variety of travel I have been able to do for both work and pleasure since leaving my native Canada in the late 1970s and settling in England. One of my most memorable trips was spending some weeks in Papua New Guinea including the little-visited island of Manus. I would say that my favourite part of the world is the Indian Subcontinent and I’ve spent substantial periods of time on my own exploring between the temples of Sri Lanka and the Karakoram Highway in Pakistan. My most recent trip this summer was to Rio and the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais which was a revelation. Since having twin sons, I am not as free to take off into the wild blue yonder for extended periods as I once was but have introduced my children to about 15 countries. I had my own gap year with my family in tow in 1999/2000: we travelled in China en route to Sydney where we lived for three months, staying over New Year for the Millennium celebrations. How did you get into writing? I originally came to this country to do a postgraduate degree in English literature and had always enjoyed writing, if only long letters in the early days to friends and family in Canada describing places I’d been. After finishing the degree, I went along to the university careers office in Oxford and ticked the box for publishing jobs. The only two on offer were a trainee placement in the sales department of a big London publishing house which didn’t appeal at all and a job as editorial assistant with Vacation-Work Publications in Oxford. Although I am now freelance and live in Cambridge, I do most of my writing for the same publisher who hired me more than 20 years ago. What do you think of the career-gap phenomenon? Is it true that more ‘older people’ are taking gap years than ever before, and why do you think this is? There is no doubt that the idea of taking a substantial chunk of time out of one’s working life is far less alien than it was in the job-for-life days. A variety of reasons accounts for this. Employment practices have shifted and employees are more likely to be hired on short-term contracts, which means that many working people have far more employment flexibility than a generation ago. Added to that, a heightened awareness of getting the work-life balance right, a concept which even the government endorses, means that many people are no longer willing to work for 40+ years with only their annual three or four week holidays. Many have seen their eighteen-year-old children or neighbours’ children do amazing and exciting things before heading off to university, and have wakened up to the fact that it is never too late to make good what might have been missed at an earlier stage of life. Never mind 50 being the new 40 - 50 is the new 18! What can be the benefits of taking a career-gap? Sometimes we just need to step back from work to put our lives in perspective or re-evaluate our goals, professional or otherwise. People in our pressurised society often feel that their lives have become too detached from simple pleasures. They long for a chance to slow down and harmonise themselves a little better with the rhythms of nature. Taking a break may not be a panacea for all of life’s problems but it can have a healing affect on feelings of dissatisfaction, boredom or resentment at being undervalued. The kind of gap year that involves travelling in the developing world often leaves people with a deeper appreciation for their own culture and awareness of their good fortune. Of course there can be concrete benefits too such as a chance to improve your knowledge of a foreign language which might enhance future job prospects. You must have talked to a lot of grown-up gappers when you were researching the book - any particularly inspiring ones? While many of the people who shared their gap year stories with me were happy to return to their previous employment, others did come back determined to make some life changes. One man working in IT made three attempts to persuade his boss to let him take unpaid time off but failed every time. So he quit and had a magnificent six months in South America, doing a Spanish course, joining an aid project in the Andes and travelling independently. On his return to England he found a less stressful job, moved out of London to near the Peak District and felt ready to settle down on a more serious footing with the girlfriend who had waited for him to return. Romances can blossom in gap years at any age. One of the most heart-warming stories was of a nearly burned-out GP aged about 50 whose life had been touched by tragedy. He arranged a sabbatical with the NHS and after spending it in Australia came back married to an Australian woman he had known for some years. Lots of people are put off from taking a career-gap because the prospect is just too daunting (will I be able to get back into work when I return home? What will I do about my home? Etc). Do you have any advice to help people deal with these practical issues? Every case is different and there are no rules that govern the behaviour of all employers. But from the scores of people I have talked to, almost all are able to slot back into employment on their return. Arranging the practical side of things is certainly a hassle (as I know from when we rented out our own house and the tenant ran up huge phone bills) but I have yet to meet anyone who really regretted having gone for it. Of course my book contains loads of concrete suggestions for avoiding practical problems. If you’re travelling the world, there are some benefits to being under 25 (cheap youth fares, the chance to meet lots of other travellers of your own age...). Are there any benefits to being over 25?! Mature travellers usually find it easier to resist the travellers’ ghettos and are not as likely to squander their savings on non-stop partying. Many find it a little harder to justify travel for its own sake than an 18-year-old does and they therefore tend to try harder to find ways of integrating with communities abroad, e.g. by volunteering, which often brings an extra dimension of satisfaction. Another advantage is that older gappers tend to be more comfortably-off than students (especially if they can collect rental income while they’re away), so can afford more treats. Finally, your book details lots of things people can do on their career-gaps, from working abroad to taking part in intrepid expeditions. Of all the things you write about, which would you most like to do yourself? When the children were younger and a little less unbiddable than they are now, I fantasised about some of the expeditions described in the chapter about travelling en famille. But when I realised what headstrong home-bodies they were becoming, I reverted to earlier dreams of solo trips. Since I love cycling, I found myself full of admiration and envy for the people who had gone on heroic cycling expeditions, about whom I wrote, especially the primary school teacher who cycled on her own from Khartoum to Cambridge. In 200 days, she cycled a truly impressive 8,855 kilometres. Click here >> to see or buy Susan’s book, ‘Gap Years for Grown Ups’

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