Annie Hawes

I enjoy Annie Hawes' books for her honesty, her constant enthusiasm and her interest in people and things and the humour she finds in situations. Annie Hawes travels first in Morocco and then in Algeria with two male friends, who are both crucial and shadowy. Together they accept hospitality from strangers and give glimpses in to a faraway world, where she constantly finds links through stories, myths and gestures to the European world we are familiar with. I learnt a lot from this book and although it is quite a dense read it was engaging.… (meer)

Annie Hawes writes well about her life in Italy and is both fun and interesting. She views the life of her Italian relatives with love and on occasion incredulity. Her books do not show a life that is impossibly romantic or a constant trail around cultural and foodie establishments. She writes about people and their stories and life and is all the more enjoyable for this. She takes me straight to the warmth and beauty of southern Italy. Being able to speak Italian and now being part of a family she is able to both know what would baffle an English audience and explain some of those inexplicable things or tell her reader what is going on so that you can make your own mind up. For those of us who love Italy and want to understand the culture, this is fantastic.… (meer)