Customer Reviews

Still Life in Crete

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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).

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..."?

Anthony Cox, author of Still Life in Crete, followed a path similar to Mayle's. The opportunity presented by an early retirement package was too attractive to pass up, so Cox and his wife Susan decided to ditch their dreary home in England and find a place in the sun on Greece's largest island. A former college lecturer and journalist for The Sunday Times, Cox relates their adventures and misadventures on the road to becoming homeowners on Crete with a delightfully droll and understated British air.

Pooh-poohing the more obvious expatriate destinations of Provence or Tuscany, the couple opted for the warm and spontaneous company of the Greeks living in the tiny village of Afrata in western Crete. The hilarious push-and-pull of Cretan property negotiations, including outrageously overpriced offers, ridiculously underpriced counteroffers and the threat of imaginary Germans ever-prepared to pay more, makes the stressful process of homebuying in the U.S. look like a walk in the park. Juggling their attempts to buy the perfect property on Crete with the difficult task of offloading their cottage in Kent, Anthony and Susan despair of ever making their Grecian dreams reality. Their eventual neighbors in Afrata accept the two Brits easily and affably, inviting them to their homes, their coffeehouses (kafeneons) and their grape-stompings. While some of the local food leaves Cox feeling a little gray (a neighbor's boiled fatty mutton, for instance), most is hearty and satisfying -- fava bean soup, pork stifado, octopus-in-vinegar. And never mind those vaunted Italian vintages -- Cretan wine and tschikoudia are tastes not to be beaten, once they've been acquired.

Cox describes sundry native topics sure to interest armchair travellers: Cretan drivers (carefree and dangerous); the ubiquitous little religious shrines (shunned as declasse by more cosmopolitan Greeks) dotting the precipitous roadways; the island's heavy-handed bureaucracy and its denizens' casual disregard for it; the feeling of grapes being squished under your toes; the surprisingly strong odor of pug farts; the ambiguous feeling of owning a beautiful mountain-and-ocean view but having only a donkey stable floored in ancient manure to live in; and the delightful acquaintance of Afrata's small-town dwellers. Cox is not immune to noticing some of the less-than-idyllic aspects of the island. Attempts at architectural "modernization" have often resulted in simple ugliness. The author also encounters in some of these mainly easygoing islandfolk a surprisingly vehement prejudice, mostly against Jews, Turks and Albanians.

Despite these not-insignificant downsides, Cox ultimately answers the Cretan siren song. As much an "off the beaten track" travel guide as lifestyle-change memoir, Still Life in Crete easily earns its berth alongside Mayle's Provence and Mayes' Tuscany. Occasional sketches of various Afratan characters, a few well-chosen and hearty recipes and an authorial postscript round out an already satisfying volume. If your vacation plans for the foreseeable future don't include a European tour (but even if they do!), take this literary side trip with Anthony Cox to unforgettable Crete. (Written by Sharon Schulz-Elsing for "Curled Up With a Good Book")

My wife and I took a cruise last year, sailing aroung the Med and taking in the Greek Islands, enjoying the local color and good-humor of the Cretans and other islanders. My wife bought me "Still Life in Crete" and I found it to be full of informative, hilarious and accurate writing on my favorite island.

I'd sure like to have the guts to do what the author here has done. It reads beautifully and no book on life in the Med (I am a freelance writer for travel magazines) covers island life like this one. My memories are food and drink, the landscape, the wonderful people and their bizarre daily routines. All these can be found in the book. There really is something for everyone - especially if you're a dog-lover!

This book is Europe as it should be. It is THE book for Crete, maybe even Greece. I didn't know what to expect but Mr Cox has kept my memories of a beautiful island alive. Anyone going to Europe should read it, you won't find a better guide.

This book offers its readers plenty of facts - and plenty of laughs! It's the witty story of an English couple's attempts to make a new life in Crete, the Greek island described by the author as Europe's last outpost of individualism. The author writes with a robust good humor about his experiences - and with an almost journalistic directness. "Still Life in Crete" will appeal mainly to travel book readers, particularly those who enjoy getting off the well-beaten track, but anyone thinking of moving to live in another country will also like it. Although it is a first-person account of actual events, the book's characters and the sustained and active narrative make it as readable as a novel.

"Captain Corelli" (with his instrument) has become like a Pied Piper! The media's obsession with "Captain Spaghetti" has enticed people to follow the story as if nothing else had ever been written about life on a Greek island. I'd like to trumpet the virtues of "Still Life in Crete", which tells the story of a couple who decide to leave their cramped cottage home in the cabbage-rich flatlands of England's southeastern county - Kent - and start a new life on Crete, Greece's biggest island. The book is genuinely witty, informative and up-to-date, which makes it helpful for anyone planning to move abroad or take a holiday in Crete. It reminds me of the immensely popular "A Year in Provence", with which it compares very well. Overall, "Still Life in Crete" is an amusing, entertaining book that offers the added bonus of good advice and hard facts for those who want them.

"Still Life in Crete - I enjoyed every page of it. It's an achievement to write so entertainingly." A. J. McIntyre, Editor, "The Daily Drone"

An amusing and informative account of ex-journalist and teacher Anthony Cox's experiences when he, his wife and two dogs took the big leap to sell up in England and settle in a village in Western Crete...Anthony Cox's easy style of relating events makes this book very readable, whilst sharing useful knowledge for the uninitiated. (Extract from review in "Greek-o-File" ... issue 2001/2)

"Recommended for lovers of Greek cuisine, Crete and 'enthusiastic' prose!" - ATHENS NEWS book review