Book review Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

Wow, what a read! This is a beautifully written memoir about an incredibly difficult time for Caro and husband Sean, that will stay with me for a while. This international, career-focussed couple decided in their thirties that parenthood was something they wanted, despite it not having been the focus of their five-year plan. Their life was in Dublin, their families in South Africa and Canada, but with a network of good friends with young children, Caro had support during her pregnancy. 

 

Following her journey from no bump to maternity leave, and then their arrival at the hospital, brought back so many vivid memories of my pregnancy, Ed’s birth and those early days of breastfeeding and motherhood. We had our dramas and tears, but nothing to compare to the devastating news Caro and Sean received that saw their baby daughter being whisked off to the special care baby unit with her future uncertain. 

 

Caro bravely shares this emotional and heart stopping time openly and honestly. The wait between diagnosis and operation, the long road towards recovery, even when reading it, time seemed to slow down, but I couldn’t put this book down. With so much to take in it must have terrifying – was there anything that could be done, would it be successful, what would her outcome be? So many questions, so much at stake and so much trust that had to be given to the incredible medical team they found themselves surrounded by. Everything compounded by pregnancy hormones. I was heartbroken for them, at the trauma and pain they had to go through at what should have been such a happy time for the family.

Saving Sophia by Caro Feely

 

Having ‘met’ the Feely family through reading Caro’s previous memoirs about their life on an organic vineyard in France, it is no surprise that a lot of this book is dedicated to their learning curve in this area. Caro questions her old lifestyle decisions, diet, and anything else she can think of to understand what could have caused baby Sophia’s problems. She shares her reasons for ditching the ready meals and going organic, backed up by her now vast knowledge in this field. She also shares her struggles with breastfeeding, giving a real account of how testing and painful something so natural can be.

It was certainly more complicated for her when Sophia was in intensive care, but the benefits to both mother and baby soon become obvious, even in these difficult and unusual circumstances.

 

Any parent will feel the tug of emotions as they read this book. I also came away with a stronger appreciation for the miracle that is life and a greater understanding of how precious it is and how every day must be treasured and lived to the full. 

Thank you, Caro for sharing yours and Sophia’s incredible story.

 

You can read my reviews of Caro’s previous memoirs here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions (previously known as Glass Half Full)

Cultivating Change 

My France et Moi interview

Amazon purchase links for Caro’s memoirs can be found here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions 

Cultivating Change

Saving Sophia 

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Book review Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

This is the fourth memoir from Caro Feely set on her family’s organic vineyard near Bordeaux and once again, she has written a book that really hit home as I read it and spoke to me on a level not all memoirs do. 

Cultivating Change is so much more than an update on their family and wine-making journey, it is a punchy, inspiring read that highlights the climate change problem viewed from organic farmers on the front-line. Recent summers saw not only severe hailstorms hitting the vineyards around Bordeaux (something that is becoming more common), but the area has also been victim to huge forest fires that devastated acres of woodland as they burned for weeks. 

Cultivating Change by Caro Feely

 

As well as sharing their interesting and inspiring life in France, Caro takes us along with her as she attends conferences to speak about climate change issues. It is an honest account of the good times as well as their stresses and personal struggles. I learned a lot from this book, about the issues they are facing on a daily basis, and also ideas on how to make more changes to our life. Thermals rather than too much heating, and bikes over cars have been the norm for us for many years, but I realise there is more we can do. It was good to know that there are others out that who share my fears about the gravity of the situation we have created in the world.

 

I hope that as well as her regular readers enjoying a catch-up on life at the vineyard, the climate change element in this book will give it the wider audience it deserves.

You can read my reviews of Caro’s previous memoirs here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions (previously known as Glass Half Full)

My France et Moi interview

Amazon purchase links for Caro’s memoirs can be found here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions 

Cultivating Change

Saving Sophia  

A spring drive through the Cognac vineyards

Mechanical weeding in organic vineyards

Today we took an afternoon drive through the Cognac vineyards as we needed to stock up on the local organic red from our preferred producer, Brard Blanchard. We were also using the drive to plot a cycle route from home to Cognac for a summer adventure. Unfortunately boulangeries and cafés, essential for our refuelling, are thin on the ground so research is required to avoid hungry disappointment.

It is a lovely time of year to be out as signs of spring and new life are all around, in the hedgerows, the villages and the vineyards. The cowslips and sloe blossom are out in the hedgerows and the villages are ablaze with forsythia, window boxes of pansies, flower beds full of daffodil and hyacinth bulbs and orchards turned white and pink with the first fruit blossoms. There is an air of excitement and gentle busyness. The magpies were nest building in the treetops, the chickens were head down and bottoms up scratching in the gardens, including a mother hen with her tiny speckled chicks and the gardeners were working in their potagers and mowing the verges. In one village we drove past a small road with the sign Rue des Amoureaux (Lovers Road) that made me smile and wonder why it had been so named.

The vines haven’t started sprouting their new leaves yet, but the vineyards were still busy. A pheasant with his showy plumage strutted across the road in front of us into the safety of the vines. Teams of pruners, wrapped in coats and hats were snipping the stumpy vines to two spurs while others were busy tying these in to the supports. The organic producers don’t use weed killers, but opt for mechanical weeding rather like hoeing but with a tractor. The non-organic vineyards are easy to spot with their acres of burned orange lifeless grass surrounding the feet of the vines and looking desolate and very unnatural against the fresh colours of spring around them. One of my favourite sights at this time of year is the huge fields of yellow dandelion flowers that had the weather been better would have been alive with bees. Some may consider them weeds, but I love them.

I hope you have enjoyed a spring trip to the Charente-Maritime with me. This post is linked to All About France, a monthly blog link up run by Phoebe at Lou Messugo. To read what other France lovers have to say about France this month click here.

Book review of Saving Our Skins by Caro Feely

My review today is for Saving Our Skins: Building a Vineyard Dream in France by Caro Feely, her second memoir about family life on an organic vineyard in Saussignac, Dordogne and one of my favourite reads this summer.

Saving Our Skins

Following on from Grape Expectations: A Family's Vineyard Adventure in France her first book about the early years setting up their organic vineyard, (see my review here) this is another great memoir written from the heart. With regulations, bureaucracy, weather and other things sent to try the patience of a saint, life isn’t always easy for Caro and her husband Sean who often seem to be living on the edge and following the fine line between coping and disaster. However, little by little they start to see the signs that their hard work and determination (which they seem to have in bucketfuls) is paying off. It is an uncomfortable read in places, but sharing the bad as well as the good meant I felt their excitement when there were things to celebrate. There is no doubt they have established a name for themselves in the industry and winning the wine tourism awards was a fantastic achievement.

Caro’s passion for their organic lifestyle meant this book was not only entertaining but informative too. If you are in anyway concerned or interested in the safety and quality of the food you eat and going organic, this book will enlighten and educate, without preaching. She certainly made me sit up, take note and left me determined to make a few changes little and often about what goes into my shopping basket. According to Caro, vintners in France are heavier users of toxic chemicals than the farmers and many of the products they use recommend staying out of the vineyard for 48 hours after usage. This really grabbed at my attention and more so when she explains that grapes are not washed before being crushed and made into wine. The first farmer in France to have his illness officially linked to the use of pesticides and chemicals was a winegrower who coincidently lived in Ruffec, only twenty kilometres from where I live. He died of his leukaemia. Caro also talks about the apple farmer in her village who openly admits to NEVER eating his own fruit because of the chemicals he uses on them.

Organic Charente vineyards

Reading Caro’s book really set the cat among the pigeons and led me to search out alternative products. In doing so, to celebrate our tenth anniversary of moving to France Ade found himself accompanying me to Cognac for the open day at a local(ish) organic vineyard. We took part in their treasure hunt, a four-kilometre trek around the vineyards searching for hidden questions about wine production and then enjoyed a tasting session. Thankfully having read this book I was able to answer a few more of the questions than I would otherwise have done. Something life in France has taught me is that less is more and learning to live by this means I am now happy to spend a little bit more on a locally produced organic wine even if it means drinking a little less. I also feel happy that by making small changes each week to what goes into my shopping basket, I’m not only making good choices for my family but also doing my bit to support the organic farmers like Caro and Sean.

Saving Our Skins: Building a Vineyard Dream in France and Grape Expectations: A Family's Vineyard Adventure in France are published by Summersdale (who sent me a copy to read and review) and are available in ebook and paperback format. Links to Amazon are below.

To find our more about Sean and Caro’s vineyard, their selection of wine and events see here. To read her France et Moi interview with me see here.

You can read my reviews of Caro’s memoirs here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions (previously known as Glass Half Full)

My France et Moi interview

Amazon purchase links for Caro’s memoirs can be found here:

Grape Expectations

Saving Our Skins

Vineyard Confessions 

Cultivating Change

Saving Sophia