The Swallows Fly Back

In this effervescent sequel to Jani's highly acclaimed memoir, 'The Butterflies Fly Backwards', readers are once again transported to Corfu, where her family's remarkable adventures continue.

'This is a warm and funny demonstration of the triumph of the human spirit. Battered by almost every possible disaster, Jani and her husband come through them all, and keep you laughing until the end.' Jullian Fellowes , writer and creator of Downton Abbey

This lighthearted memoir describes the next few years of the author's life in Corfu as she and her husband strive to build their dream home on the island. Set against the backdrop of the looming global financial crisis, equal measures of serendipity, calamity and chaos knock the family's best laid plans off course; a vanishing architect and teams of incompetent Albanian builders stack the odds ever more firmly against them. But having determinedly burnt their bridges in England they have little choice but to keep calm and carry on.

After eight years living afloat in the Ionian, life ashore throws fresh challenges and delights into the family's path. Big fat Greek weddings, superstition and corruption, extraordinary encounters and intrigues, floods, a femme fatale, a new puppy, stray kittens and another lucky escape ... these are only a small part of this rich and colourful Corfiot tapestry.

Triumphs and tribulations are described with the same humour and eternal optimism that made The Butterflies Fly Backwards such a popular book. Jani's deep affection for Corfu and all things Greek shines through in every closely observed detail of life through endless summers and harsher winters, transporting the reader to the sunshine of the island, to the variety of its breathtaking scenery and to the unfailing kindness and warmth of its indomitable, generous people.