The Angel Tree

A good read especially if you are in love yourself with olives and olive trees or if you own land with olive trees and want to know a bit more about their history in a dramatised easy read format

Completely satisfied - thank you ( but I dont think I should be made to write more than that )

Enjoyed all 3 books

An easy read with laugh out loud descriptive moments, Alex D-M has a wealth of experience and personal realisation that makes him fun to be with through this book, and learn just how valuable is an olive tree.

Having read a lot of european travel narratives; I thought it would be good to expand a bit the interest to the olive tree. Certainly ADM provides a good account of the desire to have olive trees in the gardens of wealthy expats (not just brits) - and indeed a good overview of the needs of the Olive Tree.In the end however I was a little disappointed and felt that the book was more about ADM and his landscaping business; acquaintances and clients; and less about the beauty of the Olive Tree; and its mystical nature in European folklore. However some of his 'trips' do provide an indication of how people regard these ancient trees. The ending scene in Spain seems somehow cliched, although perhaps it really did happen.Overall: you will learn about the Olive Tree; get an interesting insight into life in southern France and being an ex-pat. The book is definitely better than some of the other ex-pat writings; and worth reading. Its just not a 5 star read.

This is Dingwell-Main's second book in which he brings his excellent knowledge of horticulture into an historical and saucy tutorial of Europe.The plot being a hunt for the most beautiful ancient olive tree wanted by an erudite and very wealthy customer. He writes with a laid-back and a very funny anecdotal style that has a touch of delicious licentiousness. The reader is transported through France, Spain,Italy and Greece in this bizarre search.It is a surprising feature of this quite brilliant book in that the author also brings a great deal of culinary and historical facts into the overall mix whilst introducing amazing characters through delightful description.I was quite happily whisked about Europe on a kind of magic carpet the only sadness was when the journey ie the book came to an end.I defy anyone not to enjoy 'The Angel Tree'.