Product Description

After falling in love with an incredible view John Mole found himself owning a pile of stones and 20 years of goat dung. With no water, electricity or even a road his family were unamused. This is the warm and funny story of the Mole family's dream of making a home in a whitewashed island house with a blue door near a beach and a taverna, and ending up in a tumbledown ruin in a near deserted village. A vision of the simple life in a timeless, idyllic Greece flounders on the blank incomprehension of the Greek villagers. His infatuation with the idea of Greece comes up against the harsh reality of making a home. Want to put up a traditional ceiling? First cut your reeds in a snake-ridden marsh. Invite the neighbours round for a barbecue? First pick out your lamb from the flock that comes past the door! Filled with cultural and linguistic confusions there is charm and humour on each page. There is plenty of Greek sun and sunstroke, sea and sickness, golden sand - and gravelly cement. Anyone who has been to Greece, if only on a package holiday, will have met in one guise or another the warm, generous and garrulous characters that cram the pages. This charming comedy has something to sa

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #338725 in Books
• Published on: 2004-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Kathimerini, Greece’s international English language newspaper
It is the humour of the author John Mole that lifts It's All Greek to Me! above the rest.

Book of the Week, Daily Express
It’s All Greek to Me! is a fabulous insight into Hellenic village life.

The Good Book Guide
Mole’s affable style suits the subject ... anecdotes come thick and fast... his self-deprecatory tone is a bonus.

Customer Reviews

Crying with laughter!
As lovers of Greece, we try to find at least one book about the country every time we visit. Last summer we took this book and have never cried so much - with laughter! We have many Greek friends and they will not mind us saying that the eccentricity of the village people is all true, but told with such love, warmth and respect. The Joke is on the author and he is not afraid to share his stupidity with the reader. Our daughters had great empathy with his children; they too have had to experience the fall out from some of their parents stranger efforts to fit in with the community. We cannot recommend this book enough BUT be warned! you get very funny looks from others on beaches, in tavernas and planes as you are helpless with laughter, tears pouring down your face! Strange lot these tourists!

This is what Greece is really like!
This is, quite simply, the funniest and most realistic book about an 'in-comer' living in a Greek community. This is how it really is! The struggles, the humour, the peculiarities and friendships. It is a 'warts and all' book. It captures the very essence of what living in Greece is all about. If you have read other peoples accounts of living in a foreign country and felt let down by the stories then BUY THIS BOOK! It will make you laugh out loud.

A Perfect Holiday Read
John Mole provides a beautifully observed account of an Englishman comming to grips with rural greek culture. Each chapter illustrates new aspects of the amazing characters that make up the village whilst holding up a mirror to our own cultural peculiarities. It's a book that will put a smile on your face a have you gently chuckling away to yourself as you follow John Moles journey.