Lilac and Roses: Our home in the Cévennes sun (La Clède Chronicles Book 1)

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The late Peggy and Alan Anderson bought La Clède, a ruined farmhouse at Ribes near the appropriately named town of Joyeuse in the Ardèche, in 1963 long before Peter Mayle appeared on the scene and made such purchases fashionable. Set amidst vineyards and peach groves, it cost £900 and they spent the next ten years, and most of their savings, renovating it. Their friends thought they were mad.

Yet by the time the couple came to retire they had transformed the ruin into an enchanting home. A local newspaper article described them as 'being set for a life of lilac and roses'. This delightful and unusual book, describing that transformation, was written in 1975 and has been edited by Peggy's daughter Jan Bevan as a tribute to her mother.

About the author:
Peggy Anderson was part of the generation who lost out heavily in their youth because of WWII. Born in 1920, at college when the war started and a young mother by the time it ended, she had wanted to be a fashion designer, but had plumped for the "safer option" of teaching in those uncertain times. She always maintained that, had she had a different career, there would not have been the time to do what she did with the house in France. School holidays permitted two visits a year at Easter and in Summer to work on La Clède, so Peggy and husband, Alan, either froze in April or roasted in August! Since Jan has been involved, with her partner, Mike, in the refurbishment of the older side of the house at about the same age she says she's amazed they managed it!

About the editor:
Jan's working life has been rather more chequered than her parents', initially climbing the ladder in press and public relations, travelling, and then opting for a career-change as an interior designer/decorator following a course at Chelsea Art School. After her parents' deaths, she moved from London to Canterbury, where she met her partner, Mike, who first visited Ribes in 1995 to repair the roof. "Thankfully", says Jan, "he loved it too."

As it is now over 40 years since the family bought Le Clède Jan brought the story up to date in her book "Keeping the Dream Alive" published in March 2005.