A Handful of Honey
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Product Description
Real Travel
'A Handful of Honey is both sensitively and beautifully written, but, above all, it's a great read.'
Wanderlust
'`Hawes' eye for detail brings a range of cultures vividly to life and she doesn't flinch at examining their complexities.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 44 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At the age of sixteen Annie Hawes was deported from Portugal and sent home to England. On the way, she was adopted by a family of Algerians heading for Paris, who came from Timimoun in Algeria, a date-farming oasis deep in the Sahara. Years later, when two friends ask her to join them on a trip through Morocco and Algeria, Annie decided to go, and to seek out her old friends from Timimoun; this book is the outcome. Annie Hawes writes in an engaging, confessional style - familiar to fans of her first book Extra Virgin - and her grasp of history and politics, particularly in relation to the Islamic world, is impressive without ever sounding pedantic. She travels close to the ground, describing what she sees with affection and an open mind, but her wry sense of humour allows her to pass judgment in the lightest of ways. When you read this book you enjoy a veritable feast in every way.
30 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
For anyone who would love to escape humdrum rainy Britain for warmth, sunshine and a totally different, unknown culture - but don't quite dare - this is it. Smell the spices, taste the food, live the sun-drenched landscapes and the shady courtyards all the way from the Mediterranean to the Sahara, enjoy the great company of Annie and the wonderful people she meets as she travels all across Morocco and Algeria on a shoestring. Everyone there seems happy to take an unknown wanderer (or three) into their hearts and their homes, right from day one - even if she and her companions don't quite know which is the correct hand to eat with, can't manage to crouch politely on their haunches throughout a whole meal, or follow the intricacies of Ramadan protocol - and don't even realize that a "thousand-star hotel" is a euphemism for sleeping rough under desert skies!
Annie Hawes is honest, affectionate and humourous, and shares with the reader everything she learns as she travels, with never a false note of whimsy or patronage. By the end of the book you feel you have gone through so much with her, so many hilarious or scary moments, so many eye-openers about local life, attitudes, history, traditions - many of them completely contradicting the ideas she (and I) had about life under Islam - that you feel as if you were there yourself, and she is an old friend you've always known. Great book! Buy it.
Annie Hawes is honest, affectionate and humourous, and shares with the reader everything she learns as she travels, with never a false note of whimsy or patronage. By the end of the book you feel you have gone through so much with her, so many hilarious or scary moments, so many eye-openers about local life, attitudes, history, traditions - many of them completely contradicting the ideas she (and I) had about life under Islam - that you feel as if you were there yourself, and she is an old friend you've always known. Great book! Buy it.
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved Annie Hawes earlier books on Italy, and having just got back from Morocco myself, I got hold of this one as soon as it came out. She clearly relished her time in North Africa. Handful of Honey is a kaleidoscope of fascinating characters and quirky encounters, each giving some new insight into North African reality. She portrays a lively, bustling world of colourful individuals with senses of humour as acute as her own. There are holy saints and dangerous djinns; there are ordinary, everyday people doing their best to make ends meet, Maghreb style; there are many hints at a long colonial history, as well as a noble pre-colonial past. There are also many deliciously spicy foodstuffs, prepared in extraordinary ways and in unlikely places: and there is much intriguing outer wear. (I laughed my head off at the scene where she attempts to don the hijab.) Hawes' great strength is her ability to empathize with anyone and everyone she encounters; from a cannabis-farming mother in the Moroccan Rif to university radicals in Algeria, from share-cropping date growers in a Saharan oasis to nomad blacksmiths in the Grand Erg mountains. A great book, which takes the reader deep behind the scenes of the usual facile stereotypes of Islam.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I'm reading 'a handful of honey' slowly
I'm reading 'a handful of honey' slowly because its the 4th in the series and I can't find another one. It's not often I turn into a 'book junkie' ready for my next fix. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Travel-lover
just a book...
the book was advertised as new, but several pages are missing and it is from a library somewhere...not what you expect. Price was cheap and I can't complain, then. Read more
Published 9 months ago by G. Carbone
Excellent book!
An audio book is great for holiday listening. I ordered it for my wife who enjoyed the story. She's going to read other books by this author! The delivery was super quick too.
Published 12 months ago by Bornean
buckets of joy
annie hawes has a wonderful style of writing but whatever you do, don't attempt this on an empty stomach or whilst dieting!!! Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by jewellery
Sadly not as expected !!
I bought this book as light holiday reading - just as I had enjoyed Annie's other three books about Italy. BOY -was I disappointed !! Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2009 by J. Moss
Knowledgeable
If you liked Annie Hawes' previous travel books about her life in the Ligurian hills, as I did, you may find this book a little disconcerting. Read more
Published on 22 Oct 2009 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Not like Annies other books...
I have mixed feelings as I type this review, and I want to be fair to Annie.
I loved her first books about life in Italy, however this latest book is written in a... Read more
I loved her first books about life in Italy, however this latest book is written in a... Read more
Published on 13 Sep 2009 by Doug
More of a travel guide than a novel
As a big fan of the other Annie Hawes books I was looking forward to this one. It is a good read and an interesting social commentary but thats what it felt like - a history and... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2009 by S. J. Turner
A warm travelogue
How does she do it? Walk along a street and get invited into local houses and meet extended families wherever she goes? It never happened to me! Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2009 by Derrygeel
Interesting
Annie does Morocco and Algeria in the company of two French guys she barely knows. Unlike her previous books, there is no cosy romance or warmth between these pages and the... Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2009 by Potterywhizz
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