Overview

‘My grandmother bought the island. The year was 1947 and she was thirty-three, a couple of years older than I am now. She was the visionary sort of person who can make something magical out of very little.’ From the moment that Tilly’s grandmother, Mor-mor, set eyes on the rocky outline of Småhølmene, it captured her imagination. Legend has it that she bought the island in exchange for a mink coat. Every summer from then on, she and her young family would escape from their life in the English countryside to its rugged outcrops and sparkling waters. Mor-mor loved Småhølmene fiercely. Lean and chic, she smoked voraciously and would scandalise the local islanders by roaming around naked, flanked by her standard black poodle, Cheri. Her children spent their days running wild, thieving for gull eggs, rowing on the lagoon, and foraging for island raspberries, which Mor-mor would sandwich together with whipped cream to make into a sukkerkake. Thirty-five years later, Tilly spent her first summer on Småhølmene. Her Mamma kept up the rituals that she herself had learnt from Mor-mor, and Tilly discovered in the island a living link between her family’s past and its present. Glittering and bittersweet, this is the captivating story of the women who made Småhølmene their own: a land of childhood adventures, of magical summers, and of Tilly’s first romance.

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9781408843314

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Utterly captivating ... Reminiscent at times of Roald Dahl's Boy. At moments she touches genius * Donald Sturrock * Perfectly evokes the calm and content that comes with a modest, self-sufficient way of life ... Charming * Daily Telegraph * A paean to simple pleasures * Harper's Bazaar * Somehow, it also captures all of our timeless childhood summers, all of our treasuring of family traditions, all of our relationships with siblings and cousins, parents and grandparents, all of our careful passing on of pastimes from one generation to the next, all of our love of nature and of homemade food, all of our hopes and dreams about continuity. So captivating are Miss Culme-Seymour's vignettes and descriptions that I was totally drawn in and, like her, came to dread the end-of-August departures. An instinctively seductive and sensual writer, she hooks you with all the senses * Country Life * A prose poem to a private idyll * The Times * A lovely blend of biography, topography and gastronomy ... She has created a lip-smacking lexicon of dishes inviting elongated vowels and dead-headed consonants ... And a cardiac-arrest threatening approach to ingredients ... Sensual foodie prose * Independent on Sunday *

Utterly captivating ... Reminiscent at times of Roald Dahl's Boy. At moments she touches genius Donald Sturrock Perfectly evokes the calm and content that comes with a modest, self-sufficient way of life ... Charming Daily Telegraph A paean to simple pleasures Harper's Bazaar Somehow, it also captures all of our timeless childhood summers, all of our treasuring of family traditions, all of our relationships with siblings and cousins, parents and grandparents, all of our careful passing on of pastimes from one generation to the next, all of our love of nature and of homemade food, all of our hopes and dreams about continuity. So captivating are Miss Culme-Seymour's vignettes and descriptions that I was totally drawn in and, like her, came to dread the end-of-August departures. An instinctively seductive and sensual writer, she hooks you with all the senses Country Life A prose poem to a private idyll The Times A lovely blend of biography, topography and gastronomy ... She has created a lip-smacking lexicon of dishes inviting elongated vowels and dead-headed consonants ... And a cardiac-arrest threatening approach to ingredients ... Sensual foodie prose Independent on Sunday

Utterly captivating ... Reminiscent at times of Roald Dahl's Boy. At moments she touches genius Donald Sturrock Perfectly evokes the calm and content that comes with a modest, self-sufficient way of life . Charming Daily Telegraph A paean to simple pleasures Harper's Bazaar Somehow, it also captures all of our timeless childhood summers, all of our treasuring of family traditions, all of our relationships with siblings and cousins, parents and grandparents, all of our careful passing on of pastimes from one generation to the next, all of our love of nature and of homemade food, all of our hopes and dreams about continuity. So captivating are Miss Culme-Seymour's vignettes and descriptions that I was totally drawn in and, like her, came to dread the end-of-August departures. An instinctively seductive and sensual writer, she hooks you with all the senses Country Life A prose poem to a private idyll The Times A lovely blend of biography, topography and gastronomy ... She has created a lip-smacking lexicon of dishes inviting elongated vowels and dead-headed consonants ... And a cardiac-arrest threatening approach to ingredients ... Sensual foodie prose Independent on Sunday

Author Information

Tilly Culme-Seymour studied English at Trinity College, Dublin. She is now based in London, where she writes on food and travel. This is her first book.

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