What happens when you leave city life and move to five acres on a hunch,
with a husband who s an aspiring alpaca-whisperer, and a feral cockerel for
company? Can you eat the cockerel for dinner? Or has it got rigor mortis?
In search of a good life and a slower pace,
Fiona Stocker upped-sticks and moved to Tasmania, a land of promise,
wilderness, and family homes of uncertain build quality. It was the lifestyle
change that many dream of and most are too sensible to attempt.
Wife, mother and now reluctant alpaca owner,
Fiona jumped in at the deep end. Gradually Tasmania got under her skin as she
learned to stack wood, round up the kids with a retired lady sheepdog, and
stand on a scorpion without getting stung.
This charming tale captures the tussles and euphoria
of living on the land in a place of untrammelled beauty, raising your family
where you want to and seeing your husband in a whole new light. Not just a
memoir but an everywoman s story, and a paean to a new, slower age.
My Thoughts:
I have to admit to not reading much non fiction and I hardly ever read memoirs but there was something about this one that appealed, I think that gorgeous cover helped to draw me in.
Apple Island Wife offers the reader an escape and draws them in and gives them a place within the family almost, like you feel like you are there. Fiona Stocker writes with a wit and warmth that was engaging. I could read about her recollections for hours more. I found myself giggling away on more than one occasion.
Apple Island Wife is the story of a family that up sticks with the desire to live a rural lifestyle and Tasmania seems to offer all the family wish for and as we find out a little more that they didn't wish for. Particularly animals eating their plants and the various insects seemingly moving in with them.
This is a gorgeous book, a perfect bit of escapism and Fiona Stocker has a wonderful way of telling a story. This is a real treat for the reader and I personally feel like I have come away knowing Fiona, Oliver and the two kids.
I would definitely read more in future.
I have to admit to not reading much non fiction and I hardly ever read memoirs but there was something about this one that appealed, I think that gorgeous cover helped to draw me in.
Apple Island Wife offers the reader an escape and draws them in and gives them a place within the family almost, like you feel like you are there. Fiona Stocker writes with a wit and warmth that was engaging. I could read about her recollections for hours more. I found myself giggling away on more than one occasion.
Apple Island Wife is the story of a family that up sticks with the desire to live a rural lifestyle and Tasmania seems to offer all the family wish for and as we find out a little more that they didn't wish for. Particularly animals eating their plants and the various insects seemingly moving in with them.
This is a gorgeous book, a perfect bit of escapism and Fiona Stocker has a wonderful way of telling a story. This is a real treat for the reader and I personally feel like I have come away knowing Fiona, Oliver and the two kids.
I would definitely read more in future.
About the Author:
Fiona Stocker is the author of travel memoir Apple Island Wife - Slow
Living in Tasmania, published by Unbound in 2018.
Raised in England, Fiona Stocker now lives in Tasmania where she writes freelance for magazines, newspapers and online publications, and runs a niche farm, food and tourism business in partnership with her husband.
She occasionally works as a ghost writer and editor, and was a judge in the Tasmanian Short Story Competition in 2016. Her first book, A Place in the Stockyard, a history of Tasmanian Women in Agriculture featuring its members, was published in 2016.
Read more and subscribe for a quarterly newsletter at http://www.fionastocker.com/ or read Fiona Stocker's blog at http://www.appleislandwife.com/
Fiona Stocker lives in the Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania, with her husband, two children and around forty-five pigs.
Apple Island Wife is her first travel memoir.
Raised in England, Fiona Stocker now lives in Tasmania where she writes freelance for magazines, newspapers and online publications, and runs a niche farm, food and tourism business in partnership with her husband.
She occasionally works as a ghost writer and editor, and was a judge in the Tasmanian Short Story Competition in 2016. Her first book, A Place in the Stockyard, a history of Tasmanian Women in Agriculture featuring its members, was published in 2016.
Read more and subscribe for a quarterly newsletter at http://www.fionastocker.com/ or read Fiona Stocker's blog at http://www.appleislandwife.com/
Fiona Stocker lives in the Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania, with her husband, two children and around forty-five pigs.
Apple Island Wife is her first travel memoir.
Twitter @FionaCStocker
Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour.
Delighted that you enjoyed this Leah, thanks for the Blog Tour support x
ReplyDeleteGreat review, book sounds lovely.
ReplyDelete