Customer Reviews
My favourite author; but a warning - you will be hungry! - By: Hugh, 05 Nov 2008 
I have loved all the Annie Hawes novels, & was eagerly awaiting this one. It didn't disappoint - another charming read & can't wait for the next one.
None of the characters from the previous books appear, but the formula is the same - entertaining stories about travel & foodin an interesting foreign place - this time North Africa.
As an aside, I brought this to read on a camping holidayin France, & the stories about North African food were so appealing that we cooked couscous & spicy stew three timesin our two weeks on the campsite.
Highly recommend Casablanca Cuisine if you fancy having a go at recreating some of the culinary adventures yourself.
Casablanca Cuisine: French North African Cooking
Ho hum... - By: Scribbler, 26 Oct 2008 
I'm a great fan of Annie Hawes but found this book to be very disappointing. The opening section, describing her adolescence & brief imprisonmentin Portugal, was riveting but after that it could have been any travel guide to N Africa. The narrative spark was missing & I found it strange after her 3 Italian volumes that her long-time Italian boyfriend merited just a single sentence. What happened to the relationship that she spent so much timein describingin the earlier books? Or did I miss it having given up after one-third out of sheer boredom? Get back to Italy Annie, you do it so well.
A good read - by Rose S Brown - By: Rose S Brown, 03 Jun 2008 
Thoroughly enjoyable read. I find Annie Hawes impressivein the extremein that she really knows her subject & her reader! I loved my travels with her but sadly missed the de Giglio family & all her Italian friends. I learned an awful lot about women of Islam & how they cope with the extremes of this religion. Annie presents a book which is humourous & yet holds the dignity of the way of life & customs of the land she travels in.
An intriguing voyage of discovery - By: A. giglio, 22 Apr 2008 At the age of sixteen Annie Hawes was deported from Portugal & sent home to England. On the way, she was adopted by a family of Algerians heading for Paris, who came from Timimounin Algeria, a date-farming oasis deepin the Sahara. Years later, when two friends ask her to join them on a trip through Morocco & Algeria, Annie decided to go, & to seek out her old friends from Timimoun; this book is the outcome. Annie Hawes writesin an engaging, confessional style - familiar to fans of her first book Extra Virgin - & her grasp of history & politics, particularlyin relation to the Islamic world, is impressive without ever sounding pedantic. She travels close to the ground, describing what she sees with affection & an open mind, but her wry sense of humour allows her to pass judgmentin the lightest of ways. When you read this book you enjoy a veritable feastin every way.
A refreshing and very funny read, and a book that will truly inspire you. - By: William J. Walsh, 15 Apr 2008 For anyone who would love to escape humdrum rainy Britain for warmth, sunshine & a totally different, unknown culture - but don't quite dare - this is it. Smell the spices, taste the food, live the sun-drenched landscapes & the shady courtyards all the way from the Mediterranean to the Sahara, enjoy the great company of Annie & the wonderful people she meets as she travels all across Morocco & Algeria on a shoestring. Everyone there seems happy to take an unknown wanderer (or three) into their hearts & their homes, right from day one - even if she & her companions don't quite know which is the correct hand to eat with, can't manage to crouch politely on their haunches throughout a whole meal, or follow the intricacies of Ramadan protocol - & don't even realize that a "thousand-star hotel" is a euphemism for sleeping rough under desert skies!
Annie Hawes is honest, affectionate & humourous, & shares with the reader everything she learns as she travels, with never a false note of whimsy or patronage. By the end of the book you feel you have gone through so much with her, so many hilarious or scary moments, so many eye-openers about local life, attitudes, history, traditions - many of them completely contradicting the ideas she (and I) had about life under Islam - that you feel as if you were there yourself, & she is an old friend you've always known. Great book! Buy it.
