A Boatful of Lemons: An Unforgettable Summer on the Amalfi Coast

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Then I remembered a book I’d read called Seven Eves. It was science fiction, and I don't normally read science fiction, but it was a fascinating book. It was about how one day the moon broke into pieces, and everybody was like, oh what happened, what happened, and then eventually a scientist comes along and says, we shouldn't be concentrating on what happened, we need to concentrate on what's going to happen next, what are the consequences are of this.

Nicki Positano: True-Life Videos of Living the Dream on the Nicki Positano: True-Life Videos of Living the Dream on the

Wendy Holloway: I think whenever an author writes a book, even if it's fiction, you can't help but put yourself into it because you have your life of experiences, outlooks, and it has to come through in one way or another, in overt ways or very subtle ways and of course that's the case with you as well. Wendy Holloway: I’ll share a little story with you. Before we were married, my husband took me to Positano in 1982 or 1983. We went there, driving along the Amalfi coast. It's so breathtaking. He took me to this little place where he always stayed, one of these smaller family owned places, Casa Cosenza.I film the videos, I edit them myself. I love editing. That's my favorite part of everything that I do. I love getting all the bits of video onto my laptop and thinking what am I going to make out of this? What's it going to look like? And putting it all together. I love it. The book has some beautiful descriptions of Positano & the Amalfi coast, and the way it is richly detailed has the power to transport you to a different place & time. The warm, caring, nature of the townsfolk comes across wonderfully in the book - the primary cast and secondary characters are fleshed out nicely, and it is easy to care for them. I like that we also see them the cast in the future, and how they have got on with their lives. Wendy Holloway: About a decade ago I went to a fish shop in Positano and I was watching them load fish coming from the port into the shop, just the most gorgeous fish. And then at a certain point one of the people in the shop loaded up a ton of fish and put it on his shoulder to walk off somewhere. And I said, “Where are you going?” And he said, “Oh, I'm taking this to a restaurant.” November to March you can fully enjoy the area, tourist-free, although lots of restaurants and shops close for the winter.

A Boatful of Lemons: An Unforgettable Summer on the Amalfi

I didn't want them to have the power of making me feel bad about what I'd written, so I never even contemplated sending it to a publisher. It sat on my computer for two years before I decided to publish it. It's not often planned, we normally do it quite spontaneously. We only film with my phone, and we really don't have any special equipment.

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And then the other one that we go to quite often is our nearest restaurant to home, the Ritrovo up in Montepertuso, which is a beautiful little restaurant in the little piazza up in the town square.

A Boatful of Lemons, Positano - Flavor of Italy

I would finish the book when we were only supposed to read the first chapter. So I loved reading and me and my mum together, we always talked about writing a book one day, and it was something that we both loved the idea of doing. We talked about maybe doing it separately or doing it together, but it was a dream that we both had. Having been to the Amalfi Coast multiple times over the past few decades, I am always searching for novels set in this colorful seaside setting that I love. This is the first novel that really captures the place AND has great characters and a unique and believable plot. They'll often come and sit down at the table with us and they have great food. We go there and they know us well, so we like the fact that we will go there and sit down and they won't even show us the menu, they'll just bring us food. They do these great platters with a bit of everything on them. I can remember everybody being so horrified by me and slowly, slowly people teaching me how to feed myself. Wendy Holloway: I think it takes a decade or more before you really feel that the new reality in Positano, or in Rome, or whatever Italian place it is gets into you and becomes more what's “you” than not.So I might think to myself, okay, we've got all these vegetables now. I really should go into the kitchen and make something out of them. I look at what I have and say, I can make this and I can make that. So I go to the kitchen, got the phone on a little tripod. And everything takes double the time because you're moving the camera around and trying to film yourself chopping vegetables and cooking. And something like 20,000 people watched it. So I thought maybe I should do more. I think it was around about 2011 that I started posting a little bit more, but I didn't really try to make a “thing” until about 2016/2017. So, yes, it has been a while! A Boatful of Lemons takes place in Positano, the breathtaking cliffside village on Italy's Amalfi Coast. Although the book is a work of fiction it's interlaced with some of Positano's factual local characters, and historic bars and restaurants.

of Lemons: An Unforgettable Summer on the Ama… A Boatful of Lemons: An Unforgettable Summer on the Ama…

I love books that have crossovers with other characters or books that have places that you can actually look up on Google and find, and they're real. I wanted to make the book a little bit like a treasure hunt in a way for visitors to Positano. Wendy Holloway: I read somewhere that even though you're married to an Italian, and you have a daughter, you still think about returning to England.

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A Boatful of Lemons is a perfect summer read and one I know I will read over and over because the writing is beautiful. An incredible debut novel by an author who has gained great popularity from blogging and a cookbook in the past. I can’t wait to see what she writes next! Anyway, the consequence was the world was going to end and everybody had to figure out where to go and a load of them went up into space. And Seven Eves - I never really considered why was it called that until I'd finished it the book - is left with just seven women, and they're the only humans left, and they have to figure out how to become Eve and repopulate the human race. Wendy Holloway: And then for your editing, you airdrop onto your laptop and then next what's your process? Time went on and Maria said, “Okay, it's getting late. Let's go up to the main road that winds through the town and we'll just sit at the bar and we'll wait for Maurizio.” Wendy Holloway: One final question about the book title, A Boatful of Lemons. My feeling is that there was a scene with Francesco, the main love interest, on a boat and he has all these lemons that spill into the boat and it seemed to me that was the inspiration.