Product Description

'There's a sign hanging just inside the broad and battered front door of our ramshackle farmhouse that reads DEU VOS GUARD. On the day we bought our tiny patch of Catalonia a new friend who lives across the valley laughingly translated it as God Help You...' So begins Martin Kirby's candid, compelling and often comic account of how he and his wife, a typical British couple with two young children, give up their careers, home and stable life in England to move to a small rundown mountain farm in Catalonia and turn it into a viable small-holdings business. NO GOING BACK: Journey to Mother's Garden is an inspiring memoir and life-changing adventure in the tradition of Carol Drinkwater's THE OLIVE FARM and Frances Mayes' UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #243946 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'A thoroughly enjoyable account of the misunderstandings, disasters and triumphs' WOMAN AND HOME 'You won't be able to put it down, it's immensely enjoyable' GLASGOW EVENING TIMES 'Hilarious, moving and cautionary, written in a breezy journalese that makes it one of the best holiday yarns around' WHAT'S ON IN LONDON

About the Author
Martin Kirby is the former deputy editor of the Eastern Daily Press and is a regular contributor to a number of newspapers in the United Kingdom.

Customer Reviews

Realism to the foreign dream
I read this whilst on holiday, and what struck me most was the amount of optimism the family had as to how things where going to progress once in Catalonia. I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone like myself interested in living the foreign dream if only I had enough guts to do it.

An entertaining and enthralling read
This is a well written and entertaining book, which I found very hard to put down. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, I really felt for the family amid all the ups and downs, highs and lows. The sense of the risks taken to pursue their dream is very strong, but the richness and excitement of the life they are now leading in the Spanish countryside makes it all feel well worth while. The pictures of local life, friends and neighbours are so vivid and colourful you almost feel you are a part of it all. I wish them every success and can't wait for the sequel.

Homage to Catalonia
I read it in almost one sitting. It's a marvellous story, well told, of a family's dream to live a better life away from the treadmill. The writer cleverly avoids the usual pit-falls (such as describing 'amusing' locals), and has a nice relaxed & likeable style. That lovely part of Spain is brought alive on the page - I think it would make a great Christmas present.