Customer Reviews

Olive Farm

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
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While the allure of a foreign land is a subject often plumbed by such attractive sojourners as Peter Mayle (A Year In Provence) and Frances Mayes (Under The Tuscan Sun), British writer/actress Carol Drinkwater offers refreshingly original musings on her love affair with southern France. She is particularly drawn to a tumble-down villa built in 1904; it is called Appassionata " a musical term meaning with passion."

"I am in the south of France, gazing at the not-so-distant Mediterranean, falling in love with an abandoned olive farm," Ms. Drinkwater writes. "The property, once stylish and now little better than a ruin, is for sale with ten acres of land."

Love, as has been said, is blind. In this case, an unabashed Francophile didn't see the lack of running water, save on a rainy day through holes in the roof, or moldering walls or the legions of insects who inhabit the long abandoned villa. She didn't envision the ponderously slow French property laws, the perplexities of nurturing olive trees, the idiosyncracies of the local residents, the vagaries of nature, or the amount of money needed to make her dream home habitable.

Warmed by the Mediterranean sun she simply thought, "To restore this old olive farm, with views overlooking the sea. To create roots, and with this man......it may be illogical, but it feels right."

She invests all of her resources, including her only insurance policy, in what her friends and parents deem to be a scheme of madness, and stakes her future with Michel, a man who proposed the day after they met. So begins her joust with French law, her battles with fire and torrential rains, and her initiation into the complexities of olive farming: "A perfectly pruned olive tree is one through which a swallow can fly without its wings brushing the branches." In the process, she ingratiates herself with two teenage stepdaughters, adopts a number of stray dogs, and makes fast friends among the fascinating local citizenry.

At times, she and Michel find themselves find themselves countries apart in efforts to raise funds for their television projects, their only hope of keeping Appassionata in their possession.

Nonetheless, for Ms. Drinkwater all is a fantasy come true, as it will be for many readers who yearn to experience the magic of southern France.

Part teacher and part torchbearer for all things Provencal, the author includes many snippets of history in her memoir as well as detailed descriptions of the processing of olive oil. She's also a gifted wordsmith aptly capturing with a phrase the scenes, tastes, and fragrances of the land she has grown to love.

Armchair travelers will revel in this intoxicating visit to an ultra chic yet eternal corner of our world.

Initially, this book caught my eye because the story takes place in the French town where I was born and raised.

While I found interesting and informative to re-discover my hometown through the eyes of the writer, I was totally captured by the many sides to this book: the story about a foreigner adapting to a different culture (which I can relate to, having made my home in the USA...), a international love story between a French man and an English woman (I am French and my husband American), the author learning to become a stepmother, the huge task of nursing back to life a beautiful property which had been abandoned by its previous owners....

There are lots of stories within the main story... All so well written, I lost track of time a lot while reading this book...

I also, through her descriptions, recognized some of the characters!! (small town... VERY small town!!)

It was a true feast and I am ordering the sequel as soon as I am finished writing this review!!

Get this book, it will literally absorb you into its own world... Getting a glimpse of the South of France without leaving your armchair should be enticing enough... I could smell the lavender in the breeze, hear the ciccadas, and almost taste the local foods I so miss here in the US...

I recommend it to you all without any reservation!

When we came home from our vacation in southern France this summer my sister in law gave me this book. I have read Frances Mayes' books about Tuscany several times and love them so much, I though, oh, just another writer trying to write like her. But I was totally wrong. Carol Drinkwater buys a farm in southern France just like Mayes does in Tuscany, but there stops the similarity.

Carol Drinkwater's style of writing is unique in the way she let us take part in her life. The book is so much more than a book about buying a farm, it is a love story to the man in her kife she has just met, it is the story of how to adjust in the life of being a step mother, it is a story of adapting another country and it's inhabitants. And her writing is so good you just melt into the book, can't put it down, feel you are there at the farm with her.

What I liked most about the book si that it shows several aspacts of the "sweet life". Not everything is romantic, we also meet the shadows of the life of buying the farm. Drinkwater opens her heart to the readers for good and for worse, and this way she makes to book a masterpiece of the love story literature.

Thanks for this book. I have already ordered it's sequel and know that when it arrives I will need to put aside anything else for some reading hours.

Britt Arnhild Lindland

This memoir of Provence reads truer to me than the Peter Mayle Provence books, much as I enjoy them. These people are real, their problems are believable, and almost from the first page you feel as if you have lived in their wonderful ruin of a house in the olive orchard in southern France. I hope Drinkwater is considering a sequel so we find out how her stepdaughters grew up, how the dogs did, and whether they have restored the house yet.

I loved this book! Ms. Drinkwater has done what so many of us dream of doing. She found a house in the South of France, and along with her husband, fought to buy it, fix it, breathe life into it. I felt transported to her wonderful farm and cheered her on. I didn't want it to end and hope she writes more about her olive farm.

I have just finished reading The Olive Farm by Carol Drinkwater and it was nothing less
than fabulous. I found it to be honest, sincere, humorous and incredibly moving. After
reading Ms. Drinkwater's work, I feel as though I know her. I want to visit her and Michel
and help work on their farm, drink wine with them and explore the south of France. It is
as if one were actually there and privy to all their joys, successes, failures and secrets. It
has been a very long time since I have read a book that I wanted more of. I was actually sorry
to have finished it. Bravo Ms. Drinkwater! Bravo!

Carol Drinkwater, actress in my all-time favorite television show, "All Creatures Great and Small," takes us with her on a warm and wonderful journey to the south of France where we experienced first-hand with her the toils, traumas, tears, and triumphs of pursuing one's dream. In this case the initial dream was to make a go of a dilapidated olive farm near Cannes and Nice, and ultimately, it led us on a voyage with the author to find her (and vicariously our) heart's desire. The farm is just a stage -- it is the people, their warmth, caring, and interdependence, that make life worth living. The story is very interesting, with plenty of ups and downs, interesting people and experiences, writing that touches all our senses (I can almost smell those orange-scented breezes), genuinely moving events and realizations, lots of heart and humor, and very importantly, excellent writing. Her descriptions are very clear, the story keeps moving forward at an interesting pace, and there were a number of passages that I re-read several times to fully appreciate her excellent use of language. (Peter Mayle could take some lessons here.) I regretted having to finish the book and stepping back out of Ms. Drinkwater's world, and I hope we will have a sequel to sink our minds and hearts into. It's enough to make me (almost) forgive the actress/author for relinquishing her role in the final episodes of "All Creatures.." I highly recommend this book, I thank the author for inviting us into her world, and I look forward to OF2.

Carol Drinkwater is a British actress. She is in a relationship with Michel, a French television producer. Together they decide to buy a neglected olive farm in the south of France. The book revolves around their eventful purchase of the farm and their even more eventful attempts to change the farm into a place where they can live. The book provides some insight into the lifestyle of the French, especially the rural communities. The characters they meet during these eventful times add much colour to the already fascinating tale - from the old lady from whom they buy the farm to the variety of workers and contractors that help them to fix the place.

Carol refers only where necessary to her and Michel's more glamorous entertainment careers, which I appreciated as I have bought the book for the story around the farm. I was easily drawn into the story by her writing and enjoyed their successes with them and stressed through the downturns with them. Her description of the countryside and their rather romantic excursion to the islands off the coast, south of Cannes, add to the enjoyment of the book.

The struggle to retain the farm and the typical human interactions between the various characters maintain a tension that holds throughout the book and it actually pulls the reader through it. I thought it was well written and well edited. Actually, similar to other reviewers, I would not mind a follow-up to learn how their lives and the farm developed further!

I read the book because of the olive element in it and the fact that I am jealous of people doing things that I want to do but am too scared to do! I am comfortable that I got value for my money and was inspired by the book, although I have still not bought my olive farm! People who enjoy biographies will not be disappointed by this book. Readers who read travel stories will also find it enjoyable. A few months ago, I have also read Extra Virgin by Annie Hawes, a similar story and also enjoyable. However, if I have to choose between the two, I will go for The Olive Farm.

The Olive Farm is a well-executed memoir in the fashion of Under the Tuscan Sun and A Year in Provence. In it, actress Carol Drinkwater and her fiance, Michel, a film producer, impetuously purchase a rundown olive farm in the south of France and begin the process of restoring it to comfort and fecundity.

This memoir will not disappoint-- Carol and her fiance face the difficulties of limited finances, needed repairs well in excess of initial estimates, and frustrations with the local workforce. All of these, of course, are transcended by the satisfactions of nursing the olive trees into production and the triumphs of beginning to restore the farmhouse to its previous grandeur.

This ground has been trodden before, but Carol Drinkwater tells her tale engagingly, drawing likable portraits of her family, friends and neighbors in Cannes. Sit back, relax and enjoy the journey to Drinkwater's Cannes.

I very much enjoyed Carol Drinkwater's honest, colorful story. She has excellent descriptive abilities; I could "see" the farm, the towns, and the people. She herself seems to be a kind, generous person who genuinely enjoys both life and other peoples' idiosyncrasies. She didn't hide the emotional turmoil she felt at times, but she also shared her moments of joy. I have read Peter Mayle's Provence books and enjoyed them too, especially for his descriptions of the people and the place, but by the end of this story, felt I knew Carol personally. I would definitely recommend it - Thanks Carol! give us more!