Tuesday, April 15, 2008


DIGGING FOR SPAIN
Penelope Todd - Longacre Press - $29.99

Hard not to pick this book up in the bookshop because of its appealing Spanish landscape cover and then one notices the publishers have done an unusual thing in a paperback book, they have colour pics on the inside of the covers, then there are the most appealing line drawings scattered throughout the book. All in all it is so appealing it is impossible not to buy Digging for Spain.
Todd, best known for her books for teens,(four times shortlisted for the NZ Post Awards), has been well served by her publishers who describe this book as “a beautifully written, evocative story weaving one woman’s transitional mid-life crisis with a visit to Spain”. I can but confirm that it is indeed all of those things but I would have to add that the author writes extremely candidly and honestly about issues that most of us would not be able to write about let alone in such a beautiful and skilled way.

One can’t imagine that a memoir by a comparatively unknown Dunedin children’s writer is going to sell in any great quantities outside her home town and her circle of family and friends and that would be a pity because this is a heartfelt and inspiring story.

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