GO READ:Not going away this year? There's nothing to stop you dreaming, with the help of a good book. FRANCES O'ROURKEbrowses through some new and old works about our favourite holiday places
FRANCE
Menerbes: A Year in Provenceby Peter Mayle has sold over six million copies since 1989. Mayle's tale of making a new life in southern France has spawned a string of sequels and a new genre of travel writing, most humorous and/or romantic tales of city folk adjusting to rural life abroad.
Cannes: The Olive Farm: A Memoir of Life, Love and Olive Oilby Carol Drinkwater is the first in a trilogy by the British actor about turning her dream of owning a crumbling, shabby-chic house near Cannes into reality with TV producer Michel, when they buy an abandoned Provençal olive farm.
Paris: A Year in the Merdeby Stephen Clarke is about the fictional adventures (and misadventures) of a 27-year-old English businessman sent to Paris to open an English tearoom, based on Clarke's personal experiences. Very funny, insightful about Paris. Sequels include Merde Happensand Merde Actually.
Limousin: C'est la Folieby townie and Daily Telegraphjournalist Michael Wright who gave up a successful media career in 2004 to buy a farm in the depths of rural France. His popular humorous Telegraphcolumns have been turned into two bestselling books.
Dijon/Aix-en-Provence/ Marseille: Long Ago in Franceand Two Towns in Provenceby MFK Fisher. The author was a prolific American food writer who lived in Dijon ( Long Ago) in the 1930s and in post-war Aix-en-Provence and Marseille ( Two Towns). Both are memoirs of her years in France, the first more foodie, the second about day-to-day life with two young daughters. (And although not a travel memoir, her book titled How to Cook a Wolfis hard to resist.)
Italy
Verona: Italian Neighbours: an Englishman in Veronaby Tim Parks is a much reprinted 1990s autobiographical account of Parks's life in Montecchio, near Verona. It is practical, intelligent and informative – and less saccharine than many books of this genre.
Cortona: Under the Tuscan Sunby Frances Mayes. American poet Mayes's romantic 1996 memoir of buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in Cortona became a bestseller, spawning a number of sequels and a movie of the same name.
San Casciano dei Bagni: A Thousand Days in Tuscany: A Bittersweet Adventureby Marlena de Blasi is a sequel to the Missouri chef's A Thousand Days in Venicewhere her romance with Italy and an Italian bank manager leads to marriage and yes, a farmhouse that has to be converted. Comes with recipes.
Venice: Veniceby Jan Morris. Not one of the wryly humorous/romantic expat books but a classic by a great travel writer first published just over 50 years ago. Manchán Magan described it in Go recently as having "languorous descriptions, gossipy asides and deliciously nutty insights".
Spain
Andalucia: Driving Over Lemonsby Chris Stewart. Drummer Stewart (he retired from Genesis at 17) succumbs to the rural dream, this time in the Alpujarras, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. With his wife Ana, his fantasy survives the harsh realities of farming life and 23 years and a clutch of books later, he's still there. Wry, amusing and insightful.
South from Granadaby Gerald Brenan. Bloomsbury Group fringe writer Brenan's account of seven years in the 1920s living in a village in the Alpujarras was published in the 1950s. Popular classic which never went out of print. Made into a Spanish movie in 2003, starring Matthew Goode as Brenan.
Castellon: Sacred Sierra: A Year on a Spanish Mountainby Jason Webster recounts the first year of expat Englishman Jason and his flamenco dancing partner Salud's restoration of a crumbling farmhouse in rural Castellón on Spain's eastern coast. He is still there, 15 years on. Thoughtful book about one man's search for a bit of the earth to belong to.
Greece
The Pelopponese: Blue Skies and Black Olives: A Survivor's Tale of Housebuilding and Peacock Chasing in Greeceby John Humphrys. Grumpy British broadcaster and his musician son Christopher, who already lived in Greece, tell the humorous story of John's impulsive purchase of a semi-derelict cottage overlooking the Aegean – and his travails restoring it over four years.
Patmos: The Summer of My Greek Taverna: A Memoirby Tom Stone. American Tom went to Greece to write a novel, fell in love and stayed 22 years. Tale of innocent abroad and the dangers of doing business in a closed community.
Corfu: The Corfu Trilogyby Gerald Durrell. Budding zoologist Durrell's My Family and Other Animalsand its sequels set on the island of Corfu in the 1930s tell the story of the eccentric English family who moved there.
Cyprus: Bitter Lemonsby Lawrence Durrell. Gerald Durrell's novelist brother Lawrence ( The Alexandria Quartet) retreated to Cyprus in 1953 to get on with his writing, but fled three years later as the fight against British rule there escalated. Humorous at the start, fascinating as his idyll crumbles. (Also see his novel Prospero's Cell, a fictionalised account of his life in Corfu, contemporary with Gerald's.)
USA
Alaska: One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odysseyby Sam Keith. Published in 1973, Keith's book is based on the journals and photography of Richard Proenneke, who in 1968 moved to Twin Lakes in Alaska to build his own log cabin in the middle of nowhere, learning how to survive the harsh Alaskan winter and live at one with nature.
Appalachia: A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail. Laugh-out-loud account of travel writer Bill Bryson's hike from Georgia to Maine with his unfit recovering alcoholic friend Stephen. (Bryson fans also recommend I'm a Stranger Here Myself, an account of his return to America after living 20 years in England.)
Washington state: The Egg and Iby Betty MacDonald. Humorous memoir published in 1945 about the author's life as a young newlywed, running a chicken farm in the Olympic peninsula in rural Washington state. Very funny (although now criticised for its depiction of native Americans and locals, who both filed lawsuits against the author) but also a vivid description of a beautiful remote part of the US.
Morocco
Fez: A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Moroccoby Suzanna Clarke. An Australian journalist and her husband buy a dilapidated, centuries-old riad in Fez, one of the best-preserved medieval walled cities in the world.
South America
Costa Rica: Happier Than a Billionaire: Quitting My Job, Moving to Costa Rica, and Living the Zero Hour Work Weekby Nadine Hays Pisani. Humorous account of a couple who risk it all for a dream in South America.
All books on amazon.com
