NEWS ADVISORY
DATE: 2/20/2006
CONTACT: Ronnie Hess, Director of Communications, Division of International Studies,
UW-Madison, (608) 262-5590 or rlhess@wisc.edu
AUTHORS OF A CASTLE IN THE BACKYARD: THE DREAM OF A HOUSE IN FRANCE TO SPEAK
AT PARIS BOOKSTORE
Madison, WI — Michael Hinden and Betsy Draine, authors of A Castle in the
Backyard: The Dream of a House in France, will speak about their book, just
issued in paperback, at Borders West, 3750 University Ave., Madison, on Tuesday,
April 4, 2006 at 7 p.m.
Part travel memoir and part romance of place, A Castle
in the Backyard (University of Wisconsin Press, paperback edition 2005) provides
an amusing but also intimate
and insightful view of village life in the Dordogne Valley, a place Hinden
and Draine made their summer home for 20 years.
With verve and affection, the couple, who are husband and wife as well as colleagues,
recount their extensive house-hunting and negotiating, eventual moving-in,
and getting-to-know the neighbors. The authors also describe their frustrations
with increased tourism as the village, Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, and its 13th
castle gained in regional prominence.
Hinden and Draine are both emeritus professors
of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who are living in London
this year. In addition to their
academic publications, they have co-translated and edited The Walnut Cookbook
(Ten Speed Press, 1998) by Jean-Luc Toussaint, their neighbor in Castelnaud.
The book features a collection of about 100 recipes from the Périgord
region. The New York Times’ reviewer called them “marvels of clear
writing,” adding that she found it difficult to stop recipe testing after
a dozen or so triumphs.
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