Life In A Postcard

Many people have fled the grey weather of northern Europe for the benign sunshine of the south, and most of them (it sometimes seems) have written books about their adventures - of varying quality and interest. This is one of the best. The author is a professional journalist, eloquent, enthusiastic, but also very honest about the downside of such ventures. Rosemary Bailey had always dreamt of living in France, and she and her partner Miles fell in love with a derelict monastery in the Pyrenees surrounded by peach orchards, which needed a vast and expensive amount of reconstruction. A great deal of the book is, naturally, concerned with the agonising move from London with everything but the kitchen stove packed in the car; and with the actual work of restoration. One section is devoted to the history of the monastery, and the lives and work of the monks who built it, but much else is about today's people, including their now-distant families. Rosemary has to cope with the birth of a son and the death of a brother, both sensitively described. The descriptions of food - everything fresh and seasonal - have the reader drooling. The people of the village and surrounding hills were as varied as the cuisine, but for the most part kind, helpful and welcoming. And behind it all are the mountains, the weather, which is not always hot and sunny, the changing light of the sky, the rainbows and the clouds. Life is hard, but rewarding. At the end of the book Rosemary and Miles are still there - but will they be there for ever? To Rosemary that is irrelevant. The place is fixed in her bones and will always be part of her wherever she is. Don't miss this inspired account of a great adventure which against all odds finally worked out. (Kirkus UK)