The Olive Harvest

A Memoir of Life, Love and Olive Oil in the South of France

Carol Drinkwater

'It is April, late spring. Here in the hills behind the Cote d'Azur, the olive groves are delicately blossomed with their tiny white-forked flowers. Beyond them, perched halfway up the slope of the hill, our belle epoque villa comes into view...'

Returning to their home after an extended absence Carol and her husband Michel are looking forward to summer together on the farm. A shocking blow leaves Carol alone. The future is uncertain. The Olive Harvest takes us beyond the perimeters of her olive groves to where hunters, poets, bee-keepers, boars and gypsies abide. In search of the language of troubadours, the dark and sometimes barbarous heart of Provence is revealed. Nature and the generosity of the South of France's harvests offer a path to joy and an abundant resolution.