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: #13919 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 354 pages

Review
Having established a reputation as a writer of comic novels and the popular 'Mind your Manners,' John Mole turns his attention to this combination of travel tale and memoir. The theme - English family set up their paradise home - is as well trodden as the rural Greek landscape that provides the backdrop. As the family set about transforming a wrecked hovel into their dream home, amusing anecdotes come thick and fast, mostly based around the potential pitfalls of linguistic and cultural differences. Occasionally funny, they sometimes grate, and you're often left feeling like you've been abandoned on the sidelines as the family merrily enjoy their in-jokes. Mole's easy, affable style undoubtedly suits the subject, and his self-deprecatory tone is a bonus as he wobblingly straddles the fine line between being accepted by his new neighbours and not coming across as a clueless soft touch with more money than sense. (Kirkus UK)

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

Never Laughed so Much!!!
I have just read It is ALL Greek To ME and couldn't put it down! It had me laughing out loud and was a thoroughly good read. Mr Mole is a fantastic storyteller allowing us an insight into his and his families joys, mishaps and experiences in Greece. Being a visitor to Greece for many years I can appreciate the errors Mr Mole made with the language! The book is full of heart and soul exploits and with his excellent storytelling way you feel as if you are part of the journey. A well written book and well worth the read, one book I will certainly read again just for the shear joy!

All Greek Is Good
I have emailed my appreciation to Mr Mole because this book is absolutely wonderful and transported me from the dour days of Devon back into the the Greece that my husband & I love so much.
John took me into his home and family: and shared his Greek experiences with a humour that I am at one with - even my husband laughed aloud reading this treasure of a book.
I only read it last week and I am re - reading it already as it has such an amazing feel-good factor to it. (I might add that I don't read that many books here - usually holidays are my time for reading !!)
This book will bring you smiles of laughter; tears; cameraderie and 'filoxenia' (Greek for welcome and stranger - as in visitor)but mostly leaves you with such a warm glow that returns a faith in human kind. Very well done John and thank you for your liitle drop sunshine !!!

laugh out loud
An excellent example of this much hackneyed genre. Bright, funny prose with good characterisation. Clutch it as you set forth to view that house for sale in the sun, although it is set years ago, it has not dated at all and the content is still so relevant...recommended.