For the past quarter of a century, Adam Thorpe has lived in an old house in the Cévennes, a range of mountains just north of Montpellier in southern France. He moved to France in 1990 and it was there he wrote Ulverton, a book about 300 years of history of a village in England.

Even though he is English, he was born in Paris and lived all over the place before settling in this region of France and his writing is a more thoughtful and considered approach to life abroad. He takes a long-term view of the place he has chosen to live. He celebrates the good parts of life there, and being a full resident feels that he has earned the right to critique it too.

I haven’t read Ulverton yet, but have read On Silbury Hill a few years ago. Like that book, it is a careful blend of memoir, history, and observation of the people that he has chosen to live with. He chose to move to France knowing that on an author’s salary, he would never be able to afford anywhere in the UK. The plan of buying a plot of land and a rambling farmhouse was scaled back to a house in a village.

The village they chose is very old, most of the buildings still there were erected in the medieval period and the landscape around still has the terraces visible that were used for growing crops in times past. It is a place that comes alive in the spring as orchids, wild garlic and numerous other wildflowers turn the grey slopes a psychedelic riot of colour.

The house they live in has layers of history that are visible in the architecture and tiny details that he learns about from his neighbours about how it was used. The region suffered a lot from poverty people went barefoot to save wearing out their shoes and stripped the hillsides of all timber for fuel.

The house they have bought reveals many things as they change and adapt it to their modern needs, they find long shallow grooves in the back stonework and a neighbour shows him demonstrate how knives were sharpened as they headed out for a day’s work. In a more sinister note, they find a witchcraft poppet. This is for the owner to cast spells over someone else. He returns it to where it was found and covers it again.

The families that live in the village have been there for millennia too. Thorpe learns much about the complexity of relationships even in this tiny village. There is a chapter on the rivalries between the two families and the long-running dispute they have had. He learns to tread carefully when asking about the history of the place.

I really liked this. It is not the story of someone fortunate enough to be able to afford a second home in a nice part of France, rather it is the observations of someone who is completely committed to the place they have chosen to live. His gentle and sensitive prose is a gentle meander around this village and like his other non-fiction book, is a blend of memories, history and current events, jostling for your attention. If there was one flaw, and this is only a minor one, it felt a little disjointed at times. It was reading the acknowledgements though that I found that this is a collection of articles that he wrote for the TLS, re-edited and bought together for this book. I personally would have preferred to have known that as I read each chapter.

Nope. Sorry. I decided to read this in tandem with 'Missing Fay' and lord, what my brain put up with. The lesson is finally understood. I don't like the writing of Adam Thorpe. Sorry.

Notes from the Cévennes: Half a Lifetime in Provincial France. I like the full title of this book as it helps you understand immediately that the warm affection that the author has for this region and its people is based on many years of living there and bringing up a family. It is in no way smug or superior as many of these biographical books can be. Adam Thorpe has a poetic writing style, a style which I normally find difficult to read and don't especially enjoy but I very much enjoyed his descriptions of flora and fauna of the region and his way of looking at everyday places, buildings and object to feel the tendrils of history reaching us in the present day. His descriptions of the people and their way of life also shows how the past connects with today and the fondness that he has for them is always on show, along with the gentle humour and teasing that comes with familiarity. A wonderful book.

Two of my favorite books are Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes and the recreation of this by Christopher Rush in his painfully moving To Travel Hopefully: Footsteps in the French Cévennes. It was therefore a joy to come across this delightful and educational book by the writer Adam Thorpe who has for the last 25 years lived with his family in an old house in the Cévennes, a range of mountains in southern eastern France. This region is one of the poorest in France and its uniqueness is indelibly linked with the religious conflicts of its tumultuous past. Unlike the rest of Catholic France the majority here are Protestants and identify themselves as Huguenots. Although following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 many Huguenots fled the country those that remained in the Cévennes found that the mountainous terrain protected them from attack and the descendants have continued to live there to the present day. This period of history and its consequences on the behaviour and attitudes of the local populace is covered succinctly in the book.

Divided into 23 concise chapters we get a real feel of what it is like living in this region. The character of the people, the day to day practicalities, it's history, topography and wildlife. There are chapters devoted to such diverse subjects as martens invading the loft, the need to defend the local wolf population, bullfighting, flooding and the French presidential elections. In addition to the house the family also acquire a flat above a cafe in the nearby city of Nimes which leads to an ongoing struggle with the below cafe owner.

One of the prevailing themes of the book is how through objects, buildings and landscapes the past leaves an impression as if it is telling us not to forget. Accompanying the text there are photographs and drawings which add to our appreciation of the narrative. Despite living in the area for over 25 years and having dual nationality the writer is viewed as an outsider by the locals but encounters little or no hostility. This outsiders view perhaps gives the book an added insightfulness and profundity that would not have been so evidenced if someone who only knew the area had written such a book. For a few brief hours I found myself transported to this mountainous region, feeling the sun, watching the black kites and looking forward to going to the local market. If you likes books about how the environment and history helps shape the people living there then I think you will enjoy this read.