Böcker av Myra Robinson

This original and entertaining book is about becoming immersed - literally and metaphorically - in a faded spa town and its mud, after taking the plunge with a prescription for six buckets of hot mud a day.Meet the weird characters of the village: the Man With No Voice (just how do you cure an ailing larynx with mud?) the spherical chef who cooks donkey meat pasta, the mad woman who makes fur coats; the eccentric professor of translation who speaks Shakespearean English; Arturo, the shopkeeper with a passion for cows; the Grand Dame of Tuscany and her best friend Jack Daniels...etc. There are the local oddities too: the castle with half an aeroplane stuck in its tower; the dilapidated Palladian villa; the crazy bureaucracy involved in paying the rubbish tax; and misunderstandings about local events from the frog festival and the tripe competition to the canal's 800th birthday pageant, not to mention helping with grape and cherry harvests, campaigning against big cruise ships in Venice, and a chance encounter with film star Roberto Benigni.There is a chapter on food, of course, since it's a national obsession, an original take on Venice, and an exploration of the mysteries of Italian plumbing.Efforts to save the local waterways museum by twinning it with an English canal museum resulted in the honorary title Queen of the Italian Waterways, establishing the author as a local heroine.You will probably not wish to try the terrifying mud cure, but you'll certainly be drawn into this forgotten world and share the author's infectious enthusiasm."It conjures for me my favourite place in the world.""A giggle on every page.""So many anecdotes where I found myself responding, 'yep - I know that situation!'"

This isn't the first book to be written about the experience of living in Italy, but it might have the most bizarre tales to tell. After a near-obsession with visiting spa towns, the writer finally fetched up in a faded backwater once renowned as having the best mud in Italy.The book is about becoming immersed in this place and its mud, (the fango of the title is Italian for mud) with observations about the crazy inhabitants and goings-on, after taking the plunge with a prescription for 6 buckets of hot mud a day.The weird characters of the village became her friends: the Man With No Voice (just how do you cure an ailing larynx with mud?) the mad woman who makes fur coats; Massimo, the ex-champion heavyweight boxer; Alberto the ancient odd-job man, the Grand Dame of Tuscany and her best friend Jack Daniels...etc. Then there are the local oddities: the castle with half an aeroplane stuck in its tower; the dilapidated Palladian villa with a satellite dish in a niche facing a bust of Dante; the crazy bureaucracy involved in paying the rubbish tax; and the misunderstandings about local events from the grape harvest to the canal's 800th birthday pageant.There's a chapter on food, of course, since it's a national obsession. (Did you know that a live wire coming from the ceiling in an otherwise stylish restaurant is always a hallmark of gourmet excellence?)There's also an original take on Venice, only 50 minutes away, the world's largest floating cocktail party on the doorstep, and all but ignored by the locals.This original and entertaining book is full of infectious enthusiasm. You may not wish to try the mud cure, but you'll definitely keep turning the pages and, like the author, come to love the place.