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dannywith's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
emzbaa23's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pregnancy
halfmanhalfbook's review
4.0
Tony Hawks enjoys challenges. He has written pop songs, taken entire football teams at tennis and dragged a small fridge around Ireland. But these have been short transitory affairs. This next challenge is much bigger, life changing and permanent. Having been a town dweller all his life, he has taken the bold step of moving to the country; not just the outskirts of London, but far, far west into the wilds of the Devon countryside.
Coming with him is his partner Fran. They first met at the Samuel Johnson book awards presentation, having been introduced by the Hislop’s, and have been together ever since. She is half Filipino, and it was whilst on holiday there that he woke in the middle of the night with this desire to move out of the city. Fran though he was just dreaming; but in the morning the urge was stronger. Hawks wanted to have neighbours he spoke to and food to grow so he could live more ethically and not just be a consumer of stuff. This wasn’t to be a second home, nor an idyllic chocolate box cottage. Instead they chose a community close to Dartmoor that functioned as a village should do. The estate agent couldn’t actually believe that they wanted to live there. Straight after viewing the property, they signed up to an allotment; somehow it felt right.
Thankfully they get the house. Hawks throws himself into village life, hoping that enthusiasm will hide the lack of experience and knowledge that need for almost all rural activities. He is no Alan Titchmarsh, as his first attempts at growing vegetables end in the total devastation of the crops. They undertake an organic gardening course in the hope of being able to keep the plants alive; but embracing the green way of life leads to painful (for him) and hilarious (for us) consequences. Thankfully his new neighbours are well versed in all things practical, and Ken in particular, digs Tony out of the mire many times. He ends up as chairman of the village hall committee and is subject to the meetings about the location of the recycling bins. He has a go at zumba too; but only the once... The roads in Devon are very different to London, even though there are 10,000 miles of them, they are not much wider than a car. He has stare offs with the locals to see who will back down, and several scares when driving a tractor in a rally.
A little while after they move down, they find out that Fran is expecting. This means that he might just have time to squeeze in a tiny solo adventure to raise money for a Moldavian charity that he supports. Not wanting to make things easy for himself, he is aiming to cycle from the north Devon coast to the channel; hard enough you’d think as it is pretty hilly there, but he is intending on doing it with a small pig called Titch. Daft, but then you wouldn’t expect anything less from Hawks.
This is another great book from him. The writing style is chatty as you would expect, and very very funny as his other books have been, so much so that I had to put the book down and wipe the tears away a few times. I love his enthusiasm too; he is willing to give anything a go too, and his recollection of these events make for entertaining and amusing reading.
Coming with him is his partner Fran. They first met at the Samuel Johnson book awards presentation, having been introduced by the Hislop’s, and have been together ever since. She is half Filipino, and it was whilst on holiday there that he woke in the middle of the night with this desire to move out of the city. Fran though he was just dreaming; but in the morning the urge was stronger. Hawks wanted to have neighbours he spoke to and food to grow so he could live more ethically and not just be a consumer of stuff. This wasn’t to be a second home, nor an idyllic chocolate box cottage. Instead they chose a community close to Dartmoor that functioned as a village should do. The estate agent couldn’t actually believe that they wanted to live there. Straight after viewing the property, they signed up to an allotment; somehow it felt right.
Thankfully they get the house. Hawks throws himself into village life, hoping that enthusiasm will hide the lack of experience and knowledge that need for almost all rural activities. He is no Alan Titchmarsh, as his first attempts at growing vegetables end in the total devastation of the crops. They undertake an organic gardening course in the hope of being able to keep the plants alive; but embracing the green way of life leads to painful (for him) and hilarious (for us) consequences. Thankfully his new neighbours are well versed in all things practical, and Ken in particular, digs Tony out of the mire many times. He ends up as chairman of the village hall committee and is subject to the meetings about the location of the recycling bins. He has a go at zumba too; but only the once... The roads in Devon are very different to London, even though there are 10,000 miles of them, they are not much wider than a car. He has stare offs with the locals to see who will back down, and several scares when driving a tractor in a rally.
A little while after they move down, they find out that Fran is expecting. This means that he might just have time to squeeze in a tiny solo adventure to raise money for a Moldavian charity that he supports. Not wanting to make things easy for himself, he is aiming to cycle from the north Devon coast to the channel; hard enough you’d think as it is pretty hilly there, but he is intending on doing it with a small pig called Titch. Daft, but then you wouldn’t expect anything less from Hawks.
This is another great book from him. The writing style is chatty as you would expect, and very very funny as his other books have been, so much so that I had to put the book down and wipe the tears away a few times. I love his enthusiasm too; he is willing to give anything a go too, and his recollection of these events make for entertaining and amusing reading.
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