The spice ain't right (Cinnamon City - Miranda Innes)

Member Name: fizzywizzy

Product:	Cinnamon City - Miranda Innes
Date:	14/02/06 (1622 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some interesting stuff about Moroccan life and culture

Disadvantages: Difficult to like subject, emphasis on technical stuff, lack of photographs, no passion

Since Peter Mayle wrote about how he left England to start a new life abroad, many other Brits have followed his lead and the bookshops are crammed with tales of barn conversions and irate neighbours concerned about the fate of the ancient orchards.

Miranda Innes is another in that line; her first book “Getting to Manana “ told the story of how, finding herself suddenly single after many years, Miranda made the decision to buy and renovate a finca in Andalucia. “Cinnamon City” is her second book and this one is an account of how she and her partner Dan, an illustrator, bought and had restored a traditional riad in the Moroccan city of Marrakech that they hoped would provide an income for them in their retirement.

A former gardens editor for Country Living (and sister of the very arty Jocasta Innes) Miranda Innes is a true aesthete and Marrakech is the perfect city for her to demonstrate her ability to evoke the sights, sounds and colours of this vivid and energetic North African city. However there are several aspects of the book I did not enjoy and which I felt overshadowed the author’s skills.

Since “Cinnamon City” is a book without photographs it needs something more than just an account of the renovation of the building and a list of the materials and techniques used. However, Miranda focuses heavily on this, often describing techniques and styles that are difficult to imagine when reading – a photographic example would really help the reader envisage the effect being created.

Having said that Miranda devotes a great deal of the book to describing the building process, she does try to remedy that by bringing in her (and Dan’s) grown up children and their grandchildren; there are a series of visit’s which culminates in the “Christmas from hell” when the whole family stay in the half-finished riad. One of the children becomes ill, their “manager” is nowhere to be seen and Dan and Miranda’s oldest son square up to each other!

The problem here is that she doesn’t write so well about people as she does about “things” and furthermore I didn’t find any of her family very likeable - to be honest I found them all arrogant and full of self-importance! Miranda admits that she and Dan have a huge “bust-up” the same time every year and I would imagine that she is quite a difficult lady to get along with. My impression is of someone who has quite firm ideas about how one enjoys oneself and what is “de rigeur” amongst one’s “set”. When her project manager organises a Moroccan version of a house-warming party it seems that Miranda is determined not to enjoy it because she is sent to sit upstairs with the Moroccan ladies and, while it is clear that she finds it hard to live in the Moroccan way “in a country where women are supposed to be invisible”, this only caused me to become more annoyed with her.

It seems to me, on reflection, that Morocco was not the best choice for Miranda and Dan. Miranda admits that while she does not hate the house, she does not love it though she feels that, in time, she may grow to become more fond of it. This is probably because of her experiences as a woman trying to work with men in a traditional Arab country. While she gains the services of an English speaking project manager (he appoints himself in actual fact!) who understands that Miranda is an independent woman who wants to make decisions herself, many of the contractors will not speak to her let alone take instructions from her. As a result, many changes are made to the house (from the positioning of windows to the choice of colour in her own bedroom) that Miranda had no say in.

Some of this has a comedic element and it is an interesting aside to the technicalities of building work to learn a bit more about the culture of this fascinating city. However, I do not think Miranda Innes possesses the wit of someone like Carol Drinkwater who might have made these culture clashes more entertaining. I particularly liked the episode where a firend invites them for dinner and straight after the meal disppears to his room to start getting ready to go out on a date. Bewildered, Dan and Miranda stay at the table wondering where there host is, totally unaware that in Morocco the guests should leave immediately after they've eaten. My sense of "schadenfreude" was was working overtime and I laughed cruelly about this one!

I would have much preferred Miranda Innes to have created an attractive colourful “coffee-table book” with lots of photographs showing how the work progressed and vibrant images of the elegant courtyard, the sumptuous fabrics and the rich colours used in creating a luxurious Moroccan home. However, this would have been impossible given that Miranda and Dan were in Andalucia for the majority of the time during which the work was done. This makes me feel a little cheated – I had expected a book which described a couple’s loving and careful conversion of a run down old house into the house for their dreams but what I got was no more than the account of a business venture. Miranda Innes may try to make out every so often that the couple were down to their last 50 Euro but you never really believe that the project will break down for lack of money.

Frankly I didn’t care whether Miranda and Dan succeeded – I didn’t much like them and I didn’t much care for their project. Had it been a couple risking all to follow a dream it may have been different but this was merely a case of creating a pension plan. Don’t bother with the book – just log on to www.marocandalucia.co.uk and take a look at the small selection of photographs of Riad Maresco instead.


Paperback published by Black Swan, ISBN - 0552772860

Summary: Dull couple create stunning guesthouse