- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Bantam Press (2 Jun 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0593051165
- ISBN-13: 978-0593051160
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 13.8 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 752,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Getting To Manana
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Product Description
Book Description
An English woman's life in southern Spain; of learning a new language, building a beautiful house and garden, and falling in love - all over again.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
In 1996, former "Country Living" garden-editor, Miranda Innes decided to change her life completely. Tired of urban living, bored of her career, out of love with her long-standing partner, she and her son spied a romantic ruin in Andalusia amid its own olive groves, and made an offer. What happened next - selling her London house, and handing in her notice at the magazine - was going to be straightforward, or so she thought. She had not counted on the sudden emergence of a new man in her life, the plans of Arsenal football ground to purchase her back garden, a badly slipped disc and the logistics involved in moving a lifetime's possessions. Nor had she realised what a struggle re-building the house, room by room, or planting a garden in the hostile terrain of southern Spain would be. But helped by her new husband, Dan, and an assortment of eccentric locals, not least by the worldly wisdom of Juan the builder, she made it, and over the ensuing four years, the house and pool were built and the garden began to take shape. This is the story of how Miranda got to manana, of her love affair with Spain, and a countryside where "great jagged peaks range above little fields, white villages tumble like sugar cubes down the sides of hills, and white houses grow room by room in a puzzle of rectangles, topped by corrugated cinnamon-brown terracotta tiles moulded on a man's thigh". Illustrated throughout with line-drawings by Dan Pearce, "Getting to Manana" has high production values. With Miranda's gift for lyrical description of place and landscape, and her laugh-out-loud humour, this is a book to read and treasure.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Miranda Innes found that the house she wanted was named Casa Miranda, which means House with a View. This serendipitous coincidence confirmed and justified her decision to buy a ruined farmhouse in the hills above Malaga. Her account of settling in Spain is highly personal, with a welter of family detail and her own frustrations and hopes, but she leavens all the problems with style, humour, enthusiasm, and a lucky facility with similes. The inclusion of her own, her sons' and her new man's personal issues make this tale on the familiar theme of exchanging the urban jungle for a place in the sun just that little bit different. Miranda's story is dominated less by endless fracas with the builders, or lyrical waxings on the Spanish way of life, than with coping with the everyday vicissitudes of a woman's life. The flow of words ramble entertainingly in all directions, but never lose sight of the goals of telling a good story. You could almost be reading a Joanna Trollope novel, but this is about real people with real problems and dreams and how the two can be worked out alongside each other.
Each chapter finishes with a mouth-watering recipe, contributed by various members of her family and friends. The area she has chosen to live in is idyllic; marvellous landscape, ancient roots, beautiful flowers (and Miranda Innes knows her plants), good neighbours whether Spanish, British, or, in one case, an eccentric Italian/Slovakian couple, and the wonderful over-riding sunshine which makes difficulties just so much more bearable.
Miranda Innes planned this book as a catharsis and transition from the world of deadlines and office politics into a more relaxed approach to writing and thereby, life itself. Despite the pressures of rebuilding the cortijo, the vagaries of partner and sons, she emerges resolute and whole, and in doing so, provides a highly satisfying book for any woman with dreams of escaping their own rat-race and finding, if not Nirvana, a Spanish version of it. The book is as delicious as the tempting Mediterranean dishes she describes.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
We all have dreams of doing this and that. But do we do them...or just dream about them? Here is a dream from the heart that Miranda Innes can share with us all. Miranda's dream...but more than a dream. It is her inspiration, determination, trials and tribulations...getting there.. to a new life of experiences. I have truly enjoyed reading this book and I'm sure you will too. Adios Amigo!!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Miranda Innes is a very good writer; she made me laugh a few times while reading this book. Her style is easy and she is quite witty and self-deprecating. However, this book annoyed me at times. I do not wish to be rude to the author but sometimes I just thought, "You stupid woman!". I couldn't understand why she put herself in the positions she did and sometimes it didn't come across as niavety but out right foolishness! moving to a foreign country is never without problems but she appeared to go off half cocked, not learning the language, not knowing what she was doing, doing absolutely no research and then wonders why all these mishaps befall her. Indeed, she retells these mishaps with great honesty and humour but they could have all been avoided had she exercised some thought and due care. She comes across as likeable, humouress and with a good story to tell but she is also annoying in the fact that she is her own worst enemy.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Moving to rural Spain
I have just finished reading this book and having just arrived in Spain to live in a Cave Home we have been renovating for 2 years, everything in the book has amused me because... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Dee
Getting to Manana - loved it
I really enjoyed this book.
We moved over to live in Spain permanently earlier this year. After renovating our apartment on the coast to use as a permanent base, we set off in... Read more
We moved over to live in Spain permanently earlier this year. After renovating our apartment on the coast to use as a permanent base, we set off in... Read more
Published on 26 Sep 2004 by Sandra Fry
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