A Small Place in Italy - Softcover

Newby, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330338188 ISBN 13: 9780330338189

Publisher: Macmillan Pub Ltd, 1995

Synopsis

In 1967, Eric Newby and his wife Wanda acquired “ I Castagni” (The Chestnuts) , a small and ruined farmhouse in the foothills of the Apuan Alps on the borders of Liguria and northern Tuscany. They were the first foreigners to live in the area, and for 25 years, they remained the only ones. This book recounts the Newbys` life in their house in a forgotten era. It describes how they pulled the house back from the brink of collapse, their enduring friendship with the neighbouring contadini, who welcomed them - whether eating, drinking, harvesting grapes and olives, or hunting for fungus and wild asparagus - from the moment they arrived.

About this title

About the Author:

Eric Newby was born in London in 1919. In 1938, he joined the four-masted Finnish barque Moshulu as an apprentice and sailed in the last Grain Race from Australia to Europe, by way of Cape Horn. During World War II, he served in the Black Watch and the Special Boat Section. In 1942, he was captured and remained a prisoner-of-war until 1945. He subsequently married the girl who helped him to escape, and for the next fifty years, his wife Wanda was at his side on many adventures. After the war, he worked in the fashion business and book publishing but always travelled on a grand scale, sometimes as the Travel Editor for the Observer. He was made CBE in 1994 and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the British Guild of Travel Writers in 2001. Eric Newby died in 2006.

From AudioFile:

As usual, Andrew Sachs gives a stellar performance in narrating this account of renovating a dilapidated farmhouse on the border of Tuscany. He rolls out nonstop Italian phrases and descriptions of local festivals as if he'd been raised under an olive tree. But, alas, even the liveliest narration cannot transform 25 years in "I Castagni" with Eric Newby into one year in Provence with Peter Mayle. Although Newby is a highly respected travel writer, he lacks Mayle's flair for capturing colorful characters and lively dialogue. With such uninspired writing, few listeners may be tempted--even in imagination--to follow the rough road to "a small place in Italy." J.C. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Ltd
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0330338188
• ISBN 13: 9780330338189
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 211