Böcker av Valerie Helps

A CRICKET IN THE WIND - Memories of CreteARTWORK VALERIE HELPS AND GEOFFREY BULLA Cricket in the Wind - Memories of Crete is Valerie's fourth illustrated book based on her journals and chronologically the first in the series. It describes her arrival in Crete with several members of her family who decide to join in the dream that has dwelt in the author's fertile mind for so long.Following years of working in youth music and finally as the orchestra manager of the Sydney Opera House, Valerie fulfils her inner call to the magical island of Crete. She vividly describes the stunning landscape of Crete while adjusting to the different lifestyle to which she has been drawn, successfully leasing and running a suite of six holiday studios and villas, dealing with the authorities and multitudes of red tape, organising local tradesmen and learning new skills involved with the running of a business. The family makes time to explore the island, swim in shining seas, harvest olives, and dance in nightclubs and Valerie flies to Italy to join the three thousand voices of the World Festival Choir to sing The Verdi Requiem in the Arena di Verona with the tenor Luciano Pavarotti.Illustrated with Valerie's watercolours and sketches by Geoffrey Bull

THE SILENT TOWERS SPEAK - Secrets of the Deep ManiARTWORK VALERIE HELPS AND GEOFFREY BULLThe Silent Towers Speak is Valerie's third illustrated book. It tells of her exciting life exploring a remote region of the southern Peloponnese with her partner, Geoffrey. This book, based on her journals, was written before she left Greece for France to cruise the French waterways on their canal boat; their story, The Voyages of de Villehardouin, was published in 2018. This was followed by A Third of a Pond published in 2020, describing their idyllic life in rural France and the restoration of a two-hundred-year-old farmhouse with its neglected garden.Join Valerie in the remote and barren region of the Deep Mani - a land of savage history where fleeing Spartans in the eighteenth century built their fortified villages and soaring feudal towers in the southernmost part of the Peloponnese.Valerie and Geoffrey find the harbour in Homer's mythological Odyssey where Ulysses loses twelve of his fleet to the cannibalistic Laestrygonian giants, locate crumbling Frankish castles and Nestor's Palace, enjoy an evening at the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, swim in the Messenian Gulf and live life to the full.

Not many in late middle age realise their dream of living on a canal boat and exploring the waterways of France. Even fewer anticipate the problems that might confront them on their adventure into ‘the unknown'.Valerie and Geoffrey buy their boat which they christen "de Villehardouin" and set off on the Canal du Midi, drawing and writing about their journey as they meander along the two hundred year old canal.They revel in the slow pace as they enter a world of welcoming ports, canalside markets, ancient sites and chateaux, delicate wildflowers and, in the Camargue, medieval jousting and pink flamingos. The various regional cuisines introduce them to gastronomic delights and memorable wines.Tackling the mighty Rhône River with its awesome deep locks in their small boat presents a challenge. Valerie and Geoffrey accept this with their usual humour. Once the Rhône is conquered, they find time to enjoy the ever-changing scenery of the canals as the dream unfolds.