I want to live in a world populated by these batty characters, punctuated by all the funny, bizarre and touching moments which de Bernieres skillfully embroiders into his most recent book. The English village of Notwithstanding is a long way from the hills of Kefalonia described in [Captain Corelli's Mandolin] but it is a testament to de Bernieres' skill as a writer that he has made both places equally real and equally intriguing in my mind's eye. He has a clever way of interspersing the funny and the tragic into his writing so each washes over you quite unexpectedly, and I'd definitely recommend this. He does, however, present English people as uniformly interested mainly in fishing and farming, and I'd like to present a word in my countrymens' defence; we also like mocking the Royal family. That is all. I was born in the 1970's in the city of Bristol so the quaint, village life portrayed in Notwithstanding is not one I particularly recognise (apart from in books!) For this reason, I wasn't sure how well I was going to get on with the book but in the end it totally charmed me. An interlinking series of short stories, fiction rather than pure memoir but with elements of both - much humour, much eccentricity, a little pathos - in all this was a good collection of entertaining tales.
What do You think about Notwithstanding (2009)?
To craunch a marmoset??? This book is fun to make as a wink
—Paula
Liked it very good. Same author as Captain Corelli
—682starz
