Island Summers: Memories Of A Norwegian Childhood

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` My grandmother bought the isl&. The year was 1947 & she was thirty-three, a couple of years older than I am now. She was the visionary sort of person who can make something magical out of very little.` From the moment that Tilly`s grandmother, Mor-mor, set eyes on the rocky outline of Smaholmene, it captured her imagination. Legend has it that she bought the island in exchange for a mink coat. Every summer from then on, she & her young family would escape from their life in the English countryside to its rugged outcrops & sparkling waters. Mor-mor loved Smaholmene fiercely. Lean & chic, she smoked voraciously & would scandalise the local islanders by roaming around naked, flanked by her standard black poodle, Cheri. Her children spent their days running wild, thieving for gull eggs, rowing on the lagoon, & foraging for island raspberries, which Mor-mor would sandwich together with whipped cream to make into a sukkerkake. Thirty-five years later, Tilly spent her first summer on Smaholmene. Her Mamma kept up the rituals that she herself had learnt from Mor-mor, & Tilly discovered in the island a living link between her family`s past & its present. Glittering & bittersweet, this is the captivating story of the women who made Smaholmene their own: a land of childhood adventures, of magical summers, & of Tilly`s first romance.