The world from my window

We've been promised a heatwave of sorts here in England next week. And about time, too! Spring's been a long time coming. Still, in the words of Louis Armstrong, I don't care what the weatherman says, when the weatherman says its raining, you'll never hear me complaining. Unless it's snowing and I slip and hurt my back.  But that's all in the past. The agony of back pain is forgotten, at least for the moment. Trees are beginning to come out in blossom. I even saw a swallow in Lush Places the week before last! Deep joy. They fill me with such happiness. And the wallflowers too. I love them. And mine are beginning to come out. Their scent is going to fill me with paroxysms of delight, I just know it. While we've been waiting for spring to spring, ITV has been very cleverly spoon-feeding us sunshine ever Sunday night in the shape of The Durrells , the television series loosely based on the Corfu Trilogy by Gerald Durrell. It makes for v...

Back in Corfu and we've just learned that the village where we lived for a year is set to become another film location for The Durrells. But we're here only for a few more days so we will miss all the excitement. Still, we've walked up the beach to see the house which the family make their home, in the television version at least, and seen evidence in town today of areas being cordoned off for filming in a few days' time. When it comes to The Durrells, we know they're going to just love our village and one location in particular. It's one of my favourite places.  Talking of excitement, we also missed the annual parade to mark the 153rd anniversary of the unification of the Ionian Islands. We hear there were aerobatics above Garitsa Bay as a Greek fighter jet wound its way over Corfu Town. We were on the other side of the Corfu Channel at the time, enjoying the most wonderful filoxenia  (kindness to strangers) in Dodoni. If you ever get the c...

The second series of The Durrells started last night, bringing with it the warmth of Corfu and that wonderful, feel-good factor so important for Sunday nights on the telly. If you love the show and all things Greek, imagine what it would be like if you moved there yourself. That's exactly what Mr Grigg and I did for a year. We even had our own Spiros protecting our backs. You can find out more in the May edition of Saga magazine . And if you can't wait for episode two, here's a link to my book, Good Morning Corfu: A Year on a Greek Island . You can download it straight to your Kindle and it's also available in paperback. 'Just like the film Mamma Mia, you'll want to get on the next plane and be there.' 'Inspired me to follow my dream and do just what Maddie did and go spend a year on the beautiful island of Corfu.' 'If you have ever wanted to escape a place,job or relationship, if you love Greece or just want a holiday read, I recommend i...

It is morning on Nikiforou Theotoki Street in Corfu Town and someone is playing a clarinet. They're high up in one of the tall, Venetian buildings and practising their scales, the notes rising slowly and then falling again, up and down, up and down. The smell of garlic wafts down through the street from the Restaurant Rex. It's early September and the shops are full of cut-price summer sandals, on sale now that the season is coming to an end. A new pair of shoes is just what I don't need, having bought a pair of shoes every week for the last six weeks as a bizarre way of coping with my grief. Mr Grigg shares a surreptitious rice pudding with Gorgeous George and then he meets Eleni on her fruit and veg stall. A friend in the market is better than money in the purse.   'Why you been away so long?' she says. Back in the village, a swallowtail butterfly flaps by and lingers, lazily, on the cerise bougainvillea that spiders its way along the front of the ...

Well, Good Morning, Corfu: A Year on a Greek Island is going really well, with interest from national magazines and newspapers. Read about it here, on The Bridport Press website . And if you're an agent or publisher who'd like to work with me, please get in touch. In the wake of The Durrells , I can feel a new Corfu Trilogy coming on. That's about it. Love Maddie x

This week, in the build-up to Greek Easter and the release of my new book, Good Morning, Corfu: A Year on a Greek Island , I will be republishing some posts written during the twelve months that I lived in a rural village in North West Corfu. The book is now available to order as an ebook on Kindle and also as a paperback . I'll be doing a signing in Corfu on Greek Easter Monday and also in Bridport in May. Here's the blurb: Good Morning, Corfu: A Year on a Greek Island charts the spell woven by this Greek island on an English couple for whom the past is in danger of being more exciting than the future. In an honest, affectionate and warm account of a grown-up gap year, UK magazine columnist Maddie Grigg introduces the reader to a cast of real-life characters and the rich history of Corfu’s traditions, and reveals what happens when the holidaymakers have gone home. Who wouldn't want to throw in the day-job and head off to the sun for a year? Just like the Durrells, M...

So, what do you think of it so far? The Durrells , I mean. If you live in the UK, Sunday evenings on the telly have just got a whole lot gentler. The always-watchable Keeley Hawes heads the cast in a series based on Gerald Durrell's Corfu Trilogy. And it's pretty sublime. The warmth and light of Corfu shines through in this very enjoyable series. It's a bit like The Darling Buds of May  only set in Greece. Just the thing for a Sunday evening. It's got me hankering after Corfu, where I lived for a year in 2012-2013. I do pop back there from time to time and I know how lucky I am to have a foot in beautiful West Dorset and another in the jewel of the Ionian (although I have to be careful not to do the splits). Corfu Dorset Just like the Durrells, we left rainy Dorset, pretty much on a whim, for life on a Greek island. Who wouldn't want to up sticks and escape the drudgery of the day job? Especially to Greece. Dorset Corfu But my grown-up g...