Book description
After sixteen months of travelling round the Mediterranean in search of
the ancient secrets of the olive tree, Carol returns to her beloved
olive farm in the south of France, to her husband Michel and his
burgeoning family. However, the homecoming celebrations are overshadowed
by disturbing discoveries. The plight of the honey bee has become an
international crisis and Carol is faced with unsettling news about the
hives on her own olive farm. While the multinational companies are
pushing for 'bigger, better, bumper' crops, a small band of farmers and
ecologists are calling for a halt to many of the modern farming
malpractices that are endangering the planet. Carol is amongst them. But
it puts her own farm, her idyll, under threat. At what point do you turn
your back on all that you believe in and all that you have been fighting
for? This is the story of how Carol and Michel struggle with some
difficult choices, and how they decide to deal with the unavoidable
disappointments and inevitable responsibilities that come with running
an organic farm. Best known for her role as Helen Herriot in BBC
Television's All Creatures Great and Small (for which she was awarded
The Variety Club Television Personality of the Year Award), Carol
Drinkwater has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as both an
actress and writer. During her acting career, she has worked in film,
television and theatre. Her credits include working with Laurence
Olivier at the National Theatre, Stanley Kubrick on A Clockwork Orange
and Max Von Sydow, whom she played opposite in the film Father, for
which she won the Critics Circle Award for Best Film Actress. Carol
Drinkwater has written novels for both adults and children, including
Abundance of Rain, Akin to Love and Mapping the Heart. Her bestselling
children's novel, The Haunted School, has sold more than 170,000 copies
and was made into a film and television series which won the Chicago
Film Festival Award for children's films. She is also the author of the
bestselling memoirs The Olive Farm, The Olive Season, The Olive Harvest,
The Olive Route and The Olive Tree. Visit her website at www.
caroldrinkwater. com
