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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way: Discover the 1960s trend for buying land on a Greek island and building a house. How hard could it be ?
Nancy Spain
Greek islands, Mediterranean countries, Biography: literary, Autobiography: literary, Memoirs, Travel writing, Classic travel writing
The superb classic memoir from a dazzlingly eccentric and endlessly fascinating author and her time spent on the glorious island of Skiathos
'A happy, hilarious book' Daily ExpressThe superb classic memoir from a dazzlingly eccentric and endlessly fascinating author and feminist icon - a woman very much ahead of her time - including her time spent on the glorious island of Skiathos
'A happy, hilarious book' Daily Express
Nancy Spain was one of the most celebrated - and notorious - writers and broadcasters of the 50s and 60s. Witty, controversial and brilliant, she lived openly as a lesbian (sharing a household with her two lovers and their various children) and was frequently litigated against for her newspaper columns - Evelyn Waugh successfully sued her for libel... twice.
Nancy Spain had a deep love of the Mediterranean. So it was no surprise when, in the 1960s, she decided to build a place of her own on the Greek island of Skiathos. With an impractical nature surpassed only by her passion for the project, and despite many obstacles, she gloriously succeeded. This classic memoir is infused with all Spain's chaotic brilliance, zest for life and single-minded pursuit of a life worth living.
Perfect for fans of A PLACE IN THE SUN and ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY
'Full of fun, and that zest of intelligence that never left her' Sunday Times
Praise for A Funny Thing Happened On The Way: Discover the 1960s trend for buying land on a Greek island and building a house. How hard could it be ?
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It is cruel that all that gaiety, intelligence and vitality should be snuffed out, when so many bores and horrors are left living
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Full of fun, and that zest of intelligence that never left her after she had become famous and a "name" ... Sharing her own feelings of happiness was Nancy's art and privilege, a rare one in this day and place - SUNDAY TIMES
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It is a happy, hilarious book ... N Spain, as she liked to call herself, loved to make people laugh, very often at herself - DAILY EXPRESS
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Rumbustiously she rattles from childhood memories to TV gossip, anecdote, wisecrack, name-dropping and travelogue ... a high-spirited projection of the admired and lamented image - DAILY TELEGRAPH
Nancy Spain
Nancy Spain was a novelist, broadcaster and journalist. Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1917, she was the great-niece of the legendary Mrs Beeton. As a columnist for the Daily Express and She magazine, frequent guest on radio's Woman's Hour and panellist on the television programmes What's My Line? and Juke Box Jury, she was one of the most recognisable (and controversial) media personalities of her era. During the Second World War she worked as a driver, and her comic memoir of her time in the WRNS became an immediate bestseller. After the war she began publishing her acclaimed series of detective novels, and would go on to write over twenty books. Spain and her longtime partner, Joan Werner Laurie, were killed when the light aircraft carrying them to the Grand National in 1964 crashed close to the racecourse. Her friend Noel Coward wrote, 'It is cruel that all that gaiety, intelligence and vitality should be snuffed out when so many bores and horrors are left living.'
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