Product Description

A House in Corfu is the story of one of the most beautiful places on earth, still astonishingly unspoilt, on the west coast of Corfu. In the early 1960s, Emma Tennant's parents, on a cruise, spotted a magical bay and decided to build a house there. This book is the story of that house, Rovinia, set in 42 hectares of land above the bay where legend has it Ulysses was shipwrecked and found by Nausicaa, daughter of King Alcinous. It is also the story of the people who have been at Rovinia since the feast in the grove at the time of putting on the roof - Maria, a miraculous cook and the presiding spirit of the house, and her husband Thodoros - and of the inhabitants of the local village, high on the hill above the bay. Full of colour and contrast, A House in Corfu shows the huge changes in island life since the time of the building of the house, and celebrates, equally, the joy of belonging to a timeless world; the world of vine, olive and sea.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #304220 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Cleo Pappas
'Here she lends her stunning prose to a unique memoir of the home her parents built on Corfu... on a journey through time'

Publishers Weekly
'...a delightful memoir...'

Publishers Weekly
'This account of an alternative lifestyle... will appeal to travelers, expatriates and their admirers.'

Customer Reviews

A House in Corfu
I loved this book. Not only is it well written - I was living in a timeless world amongst the olive groves, as of page one - it also answered an important question for me: Most of us probably dream of finding a wonderful, magical place, of being able to do up a crumbling Tuscan farm house or Venetian villa,or of building a dream home on the sea, as Emma Tennant's family did in the 1960's. But, practicalities aside, would we be happy in a foreign land? Would our friends and families come to see us? Would it really work? The answer is a resounding 'yes', if 'A House in Corfu' is anything to go by. I may not manage it myself, but this book made me feel that it is a dream worth dreaming. It also made me happy. Read it. Michaela Jordain

A House In Corfu
I was disappointed with this read. I am a huge fan of Greece and travel there at least twice a year so I thought I would love this book. However, it did not live up to expectation.

A Little Disappointing
Although I did enjoy the book, I did get a little annoyed when she complained about visitors searching out the house. Easy solution - don't advertise the house and the location by writing a (presumably profit-making) book about it!

Readable, but not in the same league as the beautifully written My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell