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| Cat on a Hot Tiled Roof: Mayhem in Mayfair and Mallorca | 
 enlarge | Author: Anna Nicholas
Publisher: Summersdale Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £3.59
You Save: £4.40 (55%)
New (23) from £3.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 20117
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1840246839
EAN: 9781840246834
ASIN: 1840246839
Publication Date: August 4, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
Cat on a Hot Tiled Roof November 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have recently restored an old finca in Spain where I now live. I am always on the lookout for books on this subject and one day A Lizard in My Luggage popped up on Amazon, as they do. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wanting more, immediately ordered Cat on a Hot Tiled Roof, which I have just finished. This is the second installment of the crazy story of Anna's move to Mallorca and all the wonderful people she has met there and I loved it.
Anna writes in such a wonderful warm and familiar style that I feel that I know these characters almost as friends of my own. Of course many of the cultural differences referred to in the book are by now well documented but Anna's fresh take on them truly makes for some laugh out loud moments.
So come on Anna, is there a third installment? Personally, I can't wait.
Another belter October 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I read Anna Nicholas's last book and made a total fool of myself by laughing out loud in public, so i had high hopes for this one too. I'm delighted to say I wasn't disappointed. I've stayed in the little corner of paradise where the book is set, and it was totally bizarre because everywhere you go there are copies of the book for sale - i think she's become a local celebrity. If you are looking for a good laugh with some truly poignant moments thrown in - then this is the book for you.
The point of view of a local August 21, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I bought this book at Calabruix, my hometown bookshop in Soller, now Anna Nicholas hometown. Years ago I had read "My Family and Other Animals" by Gerald Durrell, and had the hunch that this book was going to turn out something similar but happening in the mountains of Mallorca nowadays instead of Corfu in the 1930's. Well, the book is obviously different but equally delightful. Anna Nicholas is in Soller to stay, not as a "blown in", and has become part of the valley, not just by loving its nature but mostly by understanding its people and their way of living. By sharing their way of living. Of course, she finds shocking things, just the same we find them when we go abroad, but she is really open minded (maybe her crazy job as PR has helped her with that) and takes full advantage of our innate curiosity and hospitallity towards foreigners, which by the way was severely put to test years ago with an invasion of a certain kind of Germans which seemed to be willing to impose the power of money on everything.
But this is what I feel after reading the book. The first chapter was not too promising for me. Sheep causing hassle is too a frequent situation here to be worth writing about it!! But it got better and better till I found myself laughing loudly at the author's surprise to what is here quite a normal thing: you invite four people for lunch and suddenly they come with 4 people more. But she has just enough food for four and has to borrow from a neighbour who by the way ends having lunch there as well. It was so fun finding out that British people make no provision for such a normal thing!
How the author manages to meet such strange people in her PR job is quite happy for the book, because in this way the blend between UK and Mallorca chapters works like the structure of a best seller and so the book reads really easily, even for me and my troubles understanding the colourful English the author is using.
The only thing a little bit missing is the sea. The author seems to live "with her back to the sea" as we say here, although it is still a quite normal attitude among the locals. This said, the only chapter dealing with the sea is also very funny, although it happens in Palma, not in Soller.
All in all, a delightful book, now I'll have to read "A lizzard in my luggage". Thank you Anna for this fresh insight into Soller.
Perlas Majorica August 18, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I know Mallorca fairly well, so I can relate easily to Anna Nicholas's graphic descriptions of the island's landscape, people and customs. And beautifully written these descriptions are, too.
But there's much more to this book than just an expat's view of her adopted home. Too often the Brit incomer adopts a patronising attitude towards the local people; a condescending deameanour that the locals pretend not to notice, but which offends them, nonetheless. And quite rightly so. The British Empire never included Spain.
In this age, when so many people are 'relocating to the sun', it's all too easy to opt for settling in a home-from-home 'ghetto' populated exclusively by people of your own nationality, all speaking English, eating Hovis and drinking Carling Black Label. Fair enough, but why not just stay at home and buy a sun bed?
Read this book and learn how vital it is to make the effort to integrate, if you want to get the most out of being a guest in another people's country. Anna Nicholas and her family have done just that, and her accounts of their adventures and misadventures add up to an informative, entertaining and witty book that should be essential reading for anyone contemplating a similar move - or just happy to sit at home and dream about it.
Another Mallorcan gem of a book by the talented Ms Nicholas. Highly recommended!
Vivid views of majorca life August 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this sequel to Lizard in my Luggage, Anna Nicholas's first book about her juggling of life between mayfair & majorca. It was both entertaining and factual - and had me laughing out loud. I even recommended it to a friend who is contemplating moving to Spain and currently owns a PR company in London! Anna's style of writing vividly evokes her life in Majorca and one can almost visualise the characters in the book. Definitely a good read - not just for holidays, but for a light hearted view on life.
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