Friday favourite: The Caliph's House

When you’re lying on a beach chair, suncream in reach and cocktail in hand, you want a book you can’t put down. When you’re on an intrepid journey, navigating potholes on dusty roads, riding camels, and walking in the mountains, you’re unlikely to get much reading done. So what do you do if one of your holiday reads is too good to leave in the backpack? You take it with you of course – in the car, on the camel, up the mountain....

With this Friday favourite I’m returning to my beloved Morocco. I’ve mentioned before how I love to read a book set in the country in which I’m visiting – that’s how I came to have The Caliph’s House.

It’s the story of Tahir Shah, who having spent time in Morocco as a child, now as a father and husband moves his family to the city of Casablanca. Purchasing a house, employing staff, and integrating himself and his family into the Moroccan way of life isn’t necessarily an easy thing to do – but in this instance, there are certain unexpected incidents that come Shah’s way, not least of all the jinns (spirits).

Shah has written his story in such a way, that you feel as if you’re experiencing it all with him. It’s by no means a blow-by-blow account of how he came to set up his new life, but instead a story that is captivating, enjoyable, at times laugh out loud, and with the most wicked of all twists on the very last page.

In fact, Amazon’s product review has hit the nail on the head to describe this book:  

“...a gloriously vivid, funny, affectionate and compelling account of how [Shah] and his family - aided, abetted and so often hindered by a wonderful cast of larger-than-life local characters: guardians, gardeners, builders, artisans, bureaucrats and police (not forgetting the jinns, the spirits that haunt the house) - returned the Caliph's House to its former glory and learned to make this most exotic and alluring of countries their home.”

Needless to say, despite carrying this book around wherever I went, it didn’t take long to finish. Nor did it take husband, brother and fellow travel companions much time to finish either. In the end, one final traveller departed Morocco with The Caliph’s House in his own backpack – which meant I had to return to the bookshop for another copy to go on my shelf!

Book #11: The Saffron Gate

There are some places in the world that capture you (and others that don’t!) For me, one of my most memorable trips to what has become my most favourite of places occurred two & a half years ago to the wonderful country that is Morocco.

We’d just spent a week cycling around the South of France with the olds (they were on a SKIing holiday no less – that’s a “Spending the Kids Inheritance” holiday if you’re curious), and as they went off on a relaxing canal boat, husband, brother and I took the intrepid route to Africa, spending two and a half weeks exploring Morocco & Egypt. 

I was instantly taken by Morocco, enamoured with it, you might say. The colour of the souks, the hustle and bustle of the medina, the warmth of the sun, and the people who displayed a sense of enjoyment and enthusiasm about life.

We spent a few days in Marrakech, before venturing up into the High Atlas Mountains, riding camels, sleeping under the stars in the Sahara Desert and dining on fresh seafood at the seaside resort of Essaouira. Our every outing, every purchase, every barter, and every walk is firmly imprinted in my memory bank.

And I have just returned to experience it all again, in the pages of The Saffron Gate. It’s the story of Sidonie O’Shea, an only child to elderly parents, who, after being afflicted with a childhood disease, grows up to become a lonely woman. A tragic accident brings Sidonie face-to-face with a handsome and mysterious doctor, who departs Sidonie’s sheltered life as quickly as he entered.

Sidonie’s search for her new love takes her to Morocco, where she walks the alleys of the souks, takes in the colour of the Majorelle gardens, and ventures into the desert as she forms a relationship with the Moroccans around her. She’s a frustrating character, at times strong-willed and resourceful, yet at other times painstakingly oblivious to what is going on around her. 

I found her difficult to like, yet that didn’t stop me from turning the pages as I retraced my own steps past the stalls of colourful leather slippers, drank sweet peppermint tea with the locals, and bartered with the Moroccans – all of whom have a gentleness about them, and a twinkle in the eye.

The Saffron Gate is going on my favourite bookshelf, alongside my favourite Lonely Planet Guidebook to Morocco.