Still Life in Crete
Author: Anthony Cox
List Price: $12.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 1581126913
Publisher: Universal Publishers (15 February, 2001)
Sales Rank: 267,154
Average Customer Rating: 5 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Off-beat and off-the-beaten track!
"Still Life in Crete" by Anthony Cox is a humorous and off-beat look at migration from Kent to Crete by an early-retired British couple. It is big on food and wine and toungue-in-cheek observations of life away from the grey skies of England." - Extract from the "Lonely Planet Guide to Crete" (second edition).
Rating: 5 out of 5
Recommended
"Recommended for lovers of Greek cuisine, Crete and 'enthusiastic' prose!" - ATHENS NEWS book review
Rating: 5 out of 5
From Kent to Crete, the comic route
It's early days yet to bracket Anthony Cox with genially acerbic Bill Bryson, but "Still Life in Crete" is in the same companionable genre as the glib globetrotter: full of sharp observation visually and verbally, with a nice line in cynicism this side of world-weary. Understandably, neath drear British skies in his unmodern cottage amid cabbage stench, ex-journalist Cox dreamed of escape. Crete, with its siren promise of flower-decked, sea-girt vistas, distinctive culinary delights and £-cowed currency, sounded just the job. The Kent sale proceeds and pension, plus his wife's tele-cottaging, would guarantee comfort with style.Realising the dream was less easy, but constantly challenging, as he entertainingly reveals with a relish for every facet of the odyssey, from madcap outward journey and the usually warm, sometimes maddening character of his new neighbours near Hania and their coffee, olive oil and grape-fuelled lives, to the vagaries of local building regulations and lawyers' little ways, and the impact of tourism on this history-rich island. Plus the way his two dogs put the "pug" into repugnant.
Nonetheless, the scene-stealer amid the beguiling abundance is Cox himself, not too innocent, too knowing or too pushy and self-righteous. Just the classic, ever-welcome Englishman abroad. Not Hellenic, just differently civilised, happy to share his insights into a richly diverting culture and a life-changing experience.
The book is guaranteed "100% Greek myth-free", but it offers the tasty PS of a handful of recipes.
Next book Cox must let his sketching skill run beyond thumbnail modesty, perhaps illustrating a broader descriptive canvas. How about "A Funny Thing Happened on the way to Athens..."?
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