Winterton Blue by Trezza Azzopardi, Recommended by BritsinCrete

WINTERTON BLUE by Maltese writer and UK resident, Trezza Azzopardi is a gripping down to earth read of today's Britain, not based, per se, on Crete, Greece, but a scenario familiar to Brits in Crete. On March 25, 2007, Liesl Schilliner in the book reviews section of the New York Times, set the scene:

"Anna hates her mother. Well, of course she doesn’t hate her, she loves her. But it can be hard to tell the difference. In Crete, where they have gone on a late-season holiday, Anna mentally clocks her mother’s transgressions: flirting with a waiter, a driver and “everything in trousers”; drinking too much raki; jawing on about her friends back in Yarmouth, especially her affected “old thesp” boyfriend, Vernon, a retired ventriloquist. Everything her mother does irritates Anna.

Trezza Azzopardi expresses Anna's disgust thus : Sitting on the beach, she watches with revulsion as her mother (or Rita, as she prefers to be called, finding it friskier than “mum”) dabs Crystal Coral lipstick on her coquettish septuagenarian moue. “What are you doing that for?” Anna finally cries. “Who are you hoping to impress? The fish?” As always, Rita simply carries on. “I don’t know why you’re so nasty to me,” she tells Anna. “You’ve been in a bad mood since we left England.” But Anna has been in a bad mood far longer than that.........

Brits in Crete recommends WINTERTON BLUE by Trezza Azzopardi, officially published April 7. Available now. Hardback 256 pages. Picador UK Publisher. I think this would make a good Easter Present?

For any book reviews with Crete storylines or settings please send for my attention at: info at brits in crete dot net. Thank you
Gerald