The Olive Season

by Carol Drinkwater

Overview

Carol Drinkwater's The Olive Farm told the lyrical tale of her real-life romance with partner Michel and the abandoned Provencal olive farm they fell in love with and bought -- a double love story, recounting with wit, warmth, and spectacular detail the couple's attempts to bring their dreams to life. The Olive Season begins with the realization of another dream, a tropical island wedding. Returning to France, the couple finds there is much hope -- as well as work -- to greet them. Pregnant and often unassisted, Carol is forced to negotiate the hazards of farm work on her own. As the harvest season approaches, dramatic tensions cast dark shadows over the olive farm. With all the magnificent warmth and texture of an impressionist painting, The Olive Season entices readers into Carol Drinkwater's vibrant Mediterranean world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780753829356
Publisher:	Orion Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/28/2011
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

Carol Drinkwater is a multi-award-winning actress who is best known for her portrayal of Helen Herriot in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small, and is the author of more than 20 books, both fiction and nonfiction. Her quartet of memoirs set on her olive farm in the south of France have sold more than a million copies worldwide, and her solo journey through the Mediterranean in search of the olive tree's mythical secrets inspired a five-part documentary film series. Carol lives in the south of France, where she is writing her next novel.

Editorial Reviews

Striking a lovely balance of memoir, travelogue and olive-growing how-to, Drinkwater (The Olive Farm) delivers a richly textured account of her enviable life in southern France. She and her husband return from their wedding in Polynesia to their farm: "[P]erched halfway up the slope of the hill, our belle poque villa comes into view. Abounding in balustrade terraces, nestling among cedars and palms... overlooking the bay of Cannes towards the sun-kissed Mediterranean, there it is." The author's roots are in acting, and her dramatic flair turns mundane chores-e.g., spraying olive trees with fungicide; learning the basics of beekeeping-into colorful celebrations of nature. Some of her adventures are quite funny, such as a stuffy dinner at a British Lady's home-it's the French equivalent of a McMansion, in a housing development "where the enormously wealthy and overly paranoid can vacation with peace of mind, secure in the knowledge that armed guards and coded gates keep the rest of the south of France out of sight and at bay." Drinkwater's description of her dinner companion at that gathering-"a convivial, lobster-faced aristocrat" who makes her feel like she's "in the company of a steaming kettle"-typifies her pointed yet kindhearted sense of humor. But at the heart of these optimistic musings lies Drinkwater's desire for a child of her own (her husband has daughters from a previous marriage), and this book is heartbreakingly framed around near-fulfillment of that dream. Drinkwater succeeds in illustrating not only the graceful countryside, but the buoying power of an adopted community and a devoted spouse. Agent, Ed Victor. (May 26) Forecast: The popularity of Drinkwater's previous book creates a ready audience for this one; a $30,000 advertising campaign and author appearances will help. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A fussy, lugubrious sequel to The Olive Farm (2001), with the actress author’s moods swinging madly from rapture to complaint to melancholy. The meandering, distracted course these ruminations will take is evident from the opening salvo recounting Drinkwater’s wedding on one of the tiny Cook Islands in the South Pacific. Once she gets back to her Provençal olive farm, the scene is all juniper and lavender and a baby on the way, with plenty of ripe prose: "The sun is rising into honeydew clouds that drift out of sight." Then she moves on to the obligatory, endless fencing with the French bureaucracy (Drinkwater and her husband are trying to get regional certification of their olive grove) and the difficulty of getting laborers to either get on with their work or get the work done correctly. ("These apiarists are an irritatingly cranky and elusive breed.") Drinkwater drops too many French words into the text only to translate them in the next breath ("Le figuier. The fig. Its botanical origins are uncertain but . . ."), giving it a clubfoot to go along with the anxious prose, which caroms off bee fossils, the origin of bamboo, dinner ingredients, and Napoleon's reputation. She conveys an impression of overactivity rather than attentiveness and doesn’t get a good fix on any of her subjects. A devastating miscarriage, coupled with the news that she will likely never be able to bear children, plays against the tedious backdrop of the television show Drinkwater is shooting at the time. While she grapples with her feelings, she also tackles the story of a diviner who comes to find water for their orchard expansion, perhaps the most focused episode here, and certainly the best. Flashing fruity,then penumbral, with little surety of itself.

Kirkus Reviews

As a mistreated child, Drinkwater had two escapes--writing and acting. Both come into play here, as she’s now a professional actress (the vet James’s wife in “All Creatures Great and Small”) who writes of her idyllic marriage, devastating miscarriage, and ongoing domestic life, all set against the backdrop of her farm in Provence. Not a word, English or French, is lost as she expresses love for her often absent husband, a film producer; sadness at losing their child; outrage at developers who want to despoil the countryside; and determination to get her olive crop harvested and pressed. Her conversations with neighbors and employees are as vivid as if they happened yesterday. If you’re enchanted by this production, go back and listen to the prequel (OLIVE FARM, Clipper Audio). J.B.G. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine

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