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Featured Categories : Travel & Holiday : Countries & Regions : Europe : Spain : Cities & Regions : Balearic Islands
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Like so many other Scottish farmers, Peter Kerr and his partner Ellie had passed many a bleak winter's evening "indulging in dreams of someday swapping the rigours of growing crops and raising cattle in the harsh Scottish climate" for the more idyllic option of a small farm in Spain. On the day their dream came true, when they finally moved into their Mallorcan farmhouse, 1500 miles southwards of Scotland, it snowed. But they were lucky to be there at all: Peter and Ellie discovered their new home after taking a wrong turning while on a summer holiday, instantly falling for its "white walls, faded wooden shutters and terracotta tiled roof" which "peeped sleepily over the deep green domes of orange trees, while the mountains looked benignly on". With prose as elegant as this, Snowball Oranges is one travel book that needs no illustrations. In fact it reads more like a novel, brimming with charming characters and good humour. "My drenched trousers clung uncomfortably to my legs," the author tells us following a mishap with a hose, "dredging up sorry memories of a once-familiar sensation that I hadn't experienced since my early days at infant school." By the time you reach the last page, you feel as though you are in the Mediterranean with them, and you don't want to go home.--Daren King
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Anyone contemplating running a fruit farm in Spain would do well to read Peter Kerr's Mañana, Mañana, which describes how he left Scotland with his wife and two wary sons to set up a little valley farm growing oranges in the Mallorcan countryside.Far from being an idyllic option in "tranquilo" surroundings, the family have to work hard to survive and the gaps in their accumulated knowledge soon become apparent. Of immediate concern, for instance, is their seemingly healthy orange orchard which turns out to be riddled with diseases. Thankfully, however, the Kerr's wise neighbour Pepe--who aligns all farming tasks to the phases of the moon--intervenes and strips down the trees so that they and the family's fortune again become viable. Indeed, there is no shortage of well-meaning advisors to guide the Kerrs through and past the pitfalls they encounter: cackling, good-natured Maria with her increasingly strange selection of old wives tales (does burning donkey manure really keep away mosquitoes?); Jordi, who prides himself on his alcohol intake and knowledge about the local traffic police; Scottish Jock, who can lead them through the convoluted "Mañana, Mañana" attitude of the bureaucracy.
Throughout, as in his previous book, Snowball Oranges, Kerr excels in his character descriptions. He populates the book with vivid and likeable personalities and the family's relationships with these colourful people are often the cue to lively and hilarious adventures: rampaging pigs, eventful boat trips, dogs with strange fetishes. The expected malapropisms are genuinely funny and unexpected too--all contributing to a narrative with a generous helping of laugh-out-loud moments.
However, what really distinguishes Mañana, Mañana, apart from its well-drawn and interesting characters, is its honesty and realism. The sunshine and fun is balanced by some dark moments when the family wonder if they have done the right thing and, consequently, the writing never seems smug or self-assured--just a record of a likable family trying to make the most of a new way of life. Not forgetting that all the while the beautiful and majestic Mallorcan countryside lies in wait in the background, ready to charm the reader just as it has the Kerr family... --Christina McLoughlin
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