Mill of the Flea
7 primary works
Book 1
In this hilarious collection of cautionary tales and anecdotes, George East discusses all the delights and drawbacks of finding, buying and restoring French property. HOME & DRY IN FRANCE follows the early adventures of George and Donella East as they make every mistake in the (not-then-written) book about how and how not to buy a second home across the Channel. Tellingly subtitled A YEAR IN PURGATORY, the book is much more than a listing of all the awful pitfalls awaiting the innocent abroad: it is the hilarious and always entertaining account of how a couple set out with a dream - and came close to turning it in to a nightmare.
Book 2
The second book in the Mill of the Flea series, continues the often farcical and always entertaining adventures of the author and his wife as they attempt to make a new life in rural France. As financial disaster looms, Rene & Me sees the author and his wife moving across the Channel to try and live off the land and their wits in an isolated corner of Normandy. They arrive at the ruined Mill of the Flea and embark on a series of hare-brained schemes as they struggle to come to terms with a very different culture. Then an unlikely ally arrives in the shape of wily countryman Rene Ribet, who offers to become their guide and mentor for what proves to be an unforgettable year - Told in the inimitable style which has already won the author an army of followers, Rene & Me is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving and always captivating celebration of human nature, people and above all, life and living.
Book 3
The third book in the best-selling MILL OF THE FLEA series, continuing the often farcical and always entertaining adventures of the author and his wife as they attempt to make a new life in rural France. Totally unlike any other book in the genre, FRENCH LETTERS takes the reader on another visit to a remote area of Normandy where time is of little value and reluctant tractors (and their drivers) are kick-started on frosty mornings with a tot of moonshine apple brandy. During another eventful year at the Mill of the Flea, the author and his wife once again encounter a host of improbable characters and situations, like the vegetarian couple who set up home next to a veal farm and an elderly post-mistress who grows highly illegal pot plants while enticing a colony of hornets to set up home in her attic...
Book 4
THE FOURTH book in the best-selling Mill of the Flea series, continuing the often farcical and always entertaining adventures of the author and his wife as they attempt to make a new life in rural France. Totally unlike any other book in the genre. FRENCH FLEA BITES covers another eventful year for our hero and his wife as they stumble knee-deep through the rice pudding of their lives in darkest rural Normandy and at the Mill of the Flea. This episode introduces another galaxy of weird characters and situation - and a number of distinctly distinctive recipes, such as the favourite dishes of an (alleged) Ancient Egyptian god and his travelling companion! EVERY TYPE and age of reader from the confirmed Francophile (or Francophobe!) to the armchair adventurer...or anyone in search of a rattling good and very funny read will LOVE this book.
Book 5
French Cricket finds the author and his long-suffering wife facing imminent disaster as they struggle to survive at the Mill of the Flea. Something must be done to bring home the bacon, so our hero launches himself into another succession of hare-brained and inevitably doomed money-making schemes - French Cricket' is the fifth book in what has become a cult series, and follows our accident- prone hero through a long summer in Lower Normandy as he encounters an increasingly bizarre collection of characters, situations and events. Distractions from his money-making survival schemes to create ready-pickled eggs and breed boa-constrictors in the Big Pond include regular meetings of the infamous Jolly Boys Club. Members of this select debating society include the allegedly immortal Old Pierrot, who claims to have been on first name terms with William the Conqueror, JayPay (village superchef and entry for the moustache-growing championships of Lower Normandy), and the hypochondriacal Scabby Michel, who has had volumes of medical journals written about his ever-growing collection of exotic illnesses.
Elsewhere, there's the invasion of an equally unusual collection of would-be British settlers, whose ranks feature a rollerblading barrister in search of the real world! and a retired 'hand artist' who claims to have been a stunt fingers double for Warren Beatty. Meanwhile, back at the Mill of the Flea, there are the constant confrontations with a tribe of homicidal goldfish and the escape committee in the chicken run, and failed attempts to find a dancing partner for a ballet-loving goose and cure a duck of its fear of water.
Elsewhere, there's the invasion of an equally unusual collection of would-be British settlers, whose ranks feature a rollerblading barrister in search of the real world! and a retired 'hand artist' who claims to have been a stunt fingers double for Warren Beatty. Meanwhile, back at the Mill of the Flea, there are the constant confrontations with a tribe of homicidal goldfish and the escape committee in the chicken run, and failed attempts to find a dancing partner for a ballet-loving goose and cure a duck of its fear of water.
Book 6
In FRENCH KISSES, the ultimate innocent abroad encounters another array of weird characters and situations as the notorious Fox of Cotentin nobbles the local chicken show, and a fishing boat disguised as a carrot runs aground in a village square. Elsewhere, a Parisian clock-repairer poses as the Prince of Darkness, while a synchronised drinking team clashes with the baton-dropping champions of all Normandy. There's also the descendant of Nostradamus who makes his predictions after rather than before the event.
Book 7
French Lessons serves up another hilarious slice of life as it is lived in rural France ...but only by the disaster-prone author and his long-suffering wife. The seventh book in the immensely popular series about a British couple scraping a living in Normandy, French Lessons is another hugely entertaining account of innocents and innocence abroad. Having been forced to flee from their beloved Mill of the Flea, George and Donella find themselves in a rambling and decrepit chateau set in a vast swathe of marshlands in an isolated part of Normandy. How will they survive in their new home with no money and a menagerie of animals and the author's perennial naivete?Simple, says our hero. The Easts' will set up a multi - activity holiday centre, with hikers, cyclists and other energetic leisure seekers mingling with sculptors, writer and artists in happy harmony. Or anyway, that is Plan 'A'. And so the scene is set for another memorable episode in the best-selling series about two ordinary people who - thanks to the author- continually find themselves in very extra-ordinary circumstances.