Ripe for the Picking

Ripe for the Picking shows how much life there is left in that perennial theme, the English Abroad. Travel books are popular, but classics such as My Family and Other Animals and A Year in Provence prove that books about English people actually living abroad are just as entertaining.

Annie Hawes is an Englishwoman who has lived in a tumbledown cottage in the Ligurian hills in Italy for about a decade. In Ripe for the Picking she picks up the story of her book Extra Virgin to recount more of her adventures among the locals.

The problem with this genre is that the authors often find it difficult to resist exaggeration. Their adventures abroad are always a bit unbelievable. Can the locals really be that eccentric? Are the difficulties fitting in always so troublesome? Is rural life in Italy or Greece or Spain really so charming? Happily, Annie Hawes avoids most of these pitfalls. Ripe for the Picking is down to earth, easy going and realistic. Hawes portrays the locals as ordinary, but interesting people instead of curious and amusing foreigners, and she writes about her day-to-day adventures in the Italian hills with zest, fresh humour and genuine appreciation for her hosts. When she gets snagged on a cultural difference she is more likely to examine herself than to blame her new culture. Finally, Hawes' book sheds light on the fast-paced, neurotic Anglo-Saxon existence from which she came. She reminds us that a dose of Italy would do us all good. --Dwight Longenecker

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Very true-to-life - Rated
Read this book whilst on holiday in Liguria - quite appropriate considering this is the subject of this outstanding novel by Annie Hawes. It tells the tale of an English woman who has relocated to a little cottage in the hills above Diano Marina, just along the coast from Imperia, in the charmingly un-exploited region of Liguria, Italy. Superbly written, very funny and, as I can personally attest, and accurate portrayal of Ligurian life. This is one of the 'happiest' books I've read in a long time. Thoroughly recommended.

Ripe for the Picking - Rated
I found this book in the Charity shop where I work so started half way through Annie's adventure (now reading Extra Virgin). I could not put this book down and definitely feel that Ripe is a far better read that Extra - well you've got romance in this for a start! After finishing the book I just sat down and cried my eyes out - after all, how many of us dream of this kind of a simpler life and more organic way of living, and never manage to achieve it. I still live in hope.

Italy - Rated
I love Italy and this made me want to travel there pronto. A lovely and warm read about Liguria with the mind of a dry English lady

Now What Do I Do? - Rated
I was a little wary of this book. How could it possibly match it's predecessor, Extra Virgin (a book that started off slow for me but which within just a chapter or two I couldn't put down). As another reviewer said, once I received Ripe for the Picking (from amazon.uk -- as it's not listed on the U.S. amazon site as of this writing) I was not disappointed. This book is like revisiting old friends after an extended absence, and we get right back into the "story" with ease. Oddly, this time around it's even more of a page turner, than the original, and I find myself having to force myself to put it away at night before bed and again the next morning before work. Annie Hawes seems to have blossomed as a writer, and offers us richly drawn details without being flowery and gushing, or, the alternative in this genre it seems, condescending to the locals they at the same time claim to love, as do a few even big names in this genre. Once again I found myself dreading the end as I neared the end of this book -- now what? In every way I felt just like my own great vacation had come to an end and now it was back to the grind, a little poorer for it being over. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do, and I have every faith and belief that you will.

Not many sequels live up to this one - Rated
Annie's style of writing makes this such an excellent read, she is honest, does not judge but, relates the situations so well that you are drawn in. The way people behave in any situation gives you all you need to know and enables you to decide how you feel about each of them. Annie writes with genuine affection particularly for people, however good or bad they may be, a gentle humour (of which she is often the butt) but above all honesty. Having read Extra Virgin I could not wait to read this one. I was not disappointed. In fact so far from it that I only hope there will be further tales of Annie's life in Italy. I was completely drawn into the world in which she now lives, and can't help feeling I know everyone in it. Finishing this book is like leaving a group of old friends and not knowing when you will see them again. I cannot imagine anyone who has read Extra Virgin not wishing to read this book.