Product Description

During the course of Annie Hawes' new book, local culinary superstar, Ciccio, gradually takes over as Annie's constant companion. How irresistible is a man who first demonstrates his affection and esteem by inviting her into his vineyard to help himmix up cow manure, which she spends the afternoon slapping onto an old pizza oven to improve its insulation, before driving her at terrifying speed to a Herbie Hancock concert? But even with Ciccio's help, the everyday life of Ligurian folk never seems to lose its surreal edge for Annie. How long does she have to stay at Diano San Pietro before it all becomes normal run-of-the-mill stuff and ceases to amaze her? Will she ever manage to go native?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #76001 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ripe for the Picking shows how much life there is left in that perennial theme, the English Abroad. Travel books are popular, but classics such as My Family and Other Animals and A Year in Provence prove that books about English people actually living abroad are just as entertaining.

Annie Hawes is an Englishwoman who has lived in a tumbledown cottage in the Ligurian hills in Italy for about a decade. In Ripe for the Picking she picks up the story of her book Extra Virgin to recount more of her adventures among the locals.

The problem with this genre is that the authors often find it difficult to resist exaggeration. Their adventures abroad are always a bit unbelievable. Can the locals really be that eccentric? Are the difficulties fitting in always so troublesome? Is rural life in Italy or Greece or Spain really so charming? Happily, Annie Hawes avoids most of these pitfalls. Ripe for the Picking is down to earth, easy going and realistic. Hawes portrays the locals as ordinary, but interesting people instead of curious and amusing foreigners, and she writes about her day-to-day adventures in the Italian hills with zest, fresh humour and genuine appreciation for her hosts. When she gets snagged on a cultural difference she is more likely to examine herself than to blame her new culture. Finally, Hawes' book sheds light on the fast-paced, neurotic Anglo-Saxon existence from which she came. She reminds us that a dose of Italy would do us all good. --Dwight Longenecker

About the Author
Annie Hawes, originally from Shepherd's Bush, has been based in Liguria for fifteen years.

Customer Reviews

Not many sequels live up to this one
Annie's style of writing makes this such an excellent read, she is honest, does not judge but, relates the situations so well that you are drawn in. The way people behave in any situation gives you all you need to know and enables you to decide how you feel about each of them. Annie writes with genuine affection particularly for people, however good or bad they may be, a gentle humour (of which she is often the butt) but above all honesty. Having read Extra Virgin I could not wait to read this one. I was not disappointed. In fact so far from it that I only hope there will be further tales of Annie's life in Italy. I was completely drawn into the world in which she now lives, and can't help feeling I know everyone in it. Finishing this book is like leaving a group of old friends and not knowing when you will see them again. I cannot imagine anyone who has read Extra Virgin not wishing to read this book.

Now What Do I Do?
I was a little wary of this book. How could it possibly match it's predecessor, Extra Virgin (a book that started off slow for me but which within just a chapter or two I couldn't put down). As another reviewer said, once I received Ripe for the Picking (from amazon.uk -- as it's not listed on the U.S. amazon site as of this writing) I was not disappointed. This book is like revisiting old friends after an extended absence, and we get right back into the "story" with ease. Oddly, this time around it's even more of a page turner, than the original, and I find myself having to force myself to put it away at night before bed and again the next morning before work. Annie Hawes seems to have blossomed as a writer, and offers us richly drawn details without being flowery and gushing, or, the alternative in this genre it seems, condescending to the locals they at the same time claim to love, as do a few even big names in this genre. Once again I found myself dreading the end as I neared the end of this book -- now what? In every way I felt just like my own great vacation had come to an end and now it was back to the grind, a little poorer for it being over. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do, and I have every faith and belief that you will.

A mouthwatering slice of Italy
Annie Hawes has certainly not let us down with this remarkable second book of her life in Liguria. Annie has now got herself a man and as he is a local Ligurian naturally she is now embroiled in the antics of his extended Italian family. Her warm and often hilarious accounts of this family and the familiar characters who featured in "Extra Virgin" will literally take you to Italy. I was particularly impressed with the mouthwatering descriptions of the food in this book, so much so that I am now dreaming of a trip to Italy which involves a very,very slow lunch with a very large Italian family!