Summersdale Travel
2 total works
It's the stuff of dreams. A Scottish family give up relative sanity and security to go and grow oranges for a living in a secluded valley in the mountains of Mallorca. But dreams, as everyone knows, have a nasty habit of not turning out quite as intended. Being greeted by a freak snowstorm is only the first of many surprises and "experiences", and it isn't long before they realise that they have been sold a bit of a lemon of an orange farm by the wily previous owners. However, laughter is the best medicine and a colourful set of Mallorcan neighbours (including an eccentric old goat-herd who eats worm-ridden oranges to improve his sex life) restore the family's faith in human nature and help them adapt to a new and unexpectedly testing life in this deceptively simple idyll of rural Spain.
'Hold on tight, peedie boy, thoo's safe enough, boy, I'll look out for thee - never fret. East Lothian, 'The Garden of Scotland' and the setting of a delightfully idiosyncratic story of country life. Often hilarious, always heartfelt and at times sad, here is unfolded the ups and downs of four generations of one farming family from the northerly Orkney Isles, who move to the little farm of Cuddy Neuk in the south of Scotland just before the outbreak of the Second World War. Through the candid eyes of young Peter, the peedie boy who sets his heart on following in his somewhat eccentric grandfather's footsteps, is revealed an endearing - and never dull - Scottish story. Growing up to step into his grandfather's straw-lined wellies to run the family farm, Peter becomes a farmer father to his own sons and puts his ability to see the funny side of things to good use, as adversities crop up with an intriguing regularity ...'Pawky' rural characters, drunken ghosts, bullocks in the bedrooms, practical jokes, obscure customs and country superstitions are all added to the historic pot: a brimming and lively broth of thistle soup!