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Apple Island Wife - Slow Living in Tasmania
What happens when you leave city life behind and move to five acres, with a husband who wants to be an alpaca whisperer, and a feral cockerel for company? Can you eat the cockerel for dinner? Or has it got rigor mortis?
In search of a good life and slower pace of living, Fiona Stocker upped sticks and took her fledgling family to Tasmania, a land of promise, wilderness, and family homes of uncertain build quality.
There they learned to live differently. They grew their own food, chopped firewood and rounded up their toddlers with a retired sheepdog. Slowly they found the landscape and seasons imprinting into the fabric of their new life.
Fiona Stocker and husband Oliver made the lifestyle move that many of us dream of, a kind of Vita and Harold Sackville-West of the southern hemisphere – but funnier. By turns laugh-out-loud, reflective and poignant, her warm and witty memoir turns a satirical eye on the tussles of country life, and those the rest of us have, such as what it is exactly we should be doing in life, and how on earth our marriage survives.
Wife, mother and now alpaca farmer, she has written a wife’s tale about the search for a good life. Along the way she has captured the trials, adventures and euphoria of rural living in a place of untrammelled beauty – Tasmania. Wry, humorous and gently reflective, this is an everywoman’s story and a paean to new, slower age.
“Apple Island Wife is both heart-warming and hilarious. Filled with raw, honest real-life accounts of trying to attain the good life fuelled with a pioneering spirit and a positive attitude. Compulsive reading for anyone who has ever thought they are not living the life they should!”
Steven Lamb, River Cottage
COMING SOON.
In search of a good life and slower pace of living, Fiona Stocker upped sticks and took her fledgling family to Tasmania, a land of promise, wilderness, and family homes of uncertain build quality.
There they learned to live differently. They grew their own food, chopped firewood and rounded up their toddlers with a retired sheepdog. Slowly they found the landscape and seasons imprinting into the fabric of their new life.
Fiona Stocker and husband Oliver made the lifestyle move that many of us dream of, a kind of Vita and Harold Sackville-West of the southern hemisphere – but funnier. By turns laugh-out-loud, reflective and poignant, her warm and witty memoir turns a satirical eye on the tussles of country life, and those the rest of us have, such as what it is exactly we should be doing in life, and how on earth our marriage survives.
Wife, mother and now alpaca farmer, she has written a wife’s tale about the search for a good life. Along the way she has captured the trials, adventures and euphoria of rural living in a place of untrammelled beauty – Tasmania. Wry, humorous and gently reflective, this is an everywoman’s story and a paean to new, slower age.
“Apple Island Wife is both heart-warming and hilarious. Filled with raw, honest real-life accounts of trying to attain the good life fuelled with a pioneering spirit and a positive attitude. Compulsive reading for anyone who has ever thought they are not living the life they should!”
Steven Lamb, River Cottage
COMING SOON.
334 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2023
17 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Fiona Stocker
4 books24 followersFiona Stocker is an English / Australian author and freelance writer.
Her rural memoir Apple Island Wife – Slow Living in Tasmania was published by Unbound in 2018. She is a regular contributor to Forty South Tasmania magazine and her articles have appeared in other national and international publications. In 2015, her book about the history of farming women, A Place in the Stockyard, was published privately by Tasmanian Women in Agriculture.
Fiona is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts in Writing and Literature at Deakin University.
Raised in the UK, she now lives on five acres in the West Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania, Australia, with her family.
Her rural memoir Apple Island Wife – Slow Living in Tasmania was published by Unbound in 2018. She is a regular contributor to Forty South Tasmania magazine and her articles have appeared in other national and international publications. In 2015, her book about the history of farming women, A Place in the Stockyard, was published privately by Tasmanian Women in Agriculture.
Fiona is currently enrolled in the Master of Arts in Writing and Literature at Deakin University.
Raised in the UK, she now lives on five acres in the West Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania, Australia, with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
November 24, 2018
I read this book through The Pigeonhole, a free online book club and read it with other readers on the web. It was split into 10 parts, called staves, that I read through the nifty Pigeonhole app. I was able to leave comments throughout and interact with the other readers and the author, which really did add to my reading experience.
This was such a lovely book, I feel like I’ve spent the last ten days in Tasmania with the author, her family and menagerie. The descriptions of the area and the locals were so perfect that I could see it all happening in my mind’s eye as I was reading along.
There are some great stories about her husband Oliver, especially as he got an idea in his head about a new venture he wants to undertake. I loved the way she described his unconstrained excitement. Daisy and Kit their small children were a delight to read about too as was Midget their collie dog. From alpacas to guinea fowl to silky chooks and then pigs, life certainly wasn’t boring for the family especially when other unwanted animals decided to pay a visit.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and can’t wait for the sequel to be published next year. I definitely recommend this if you enjoy nonfiction and being transported to another part of the world without leaving your armchair. It would make a wonderful Christmas present!
This was such a lovely book, I feel like I’ve spent the last ten days in Tasmania with the author, her family and menagerie. The descriptions of the area and the locals were so perfect that I could see it all happening in my mind’s eye as I was reading along.
There are some great stories about her husband Oliver, especially as he got an idea in his head about a new venture he wants to undertake. I loved the way she described his unconstrained excitement. Daisy and Kit their small children were a delight to read about too as was Midget their collie dog. From alpacas to guinea fowl to silky chooks and then pigs, life certainly wasn’t boring for the family especially when other unwanted animals decided to pay a visit.
I thoroughly enjoyed this and can’t wait for the sequel to be published next year. I definitely recommend this if you enjoy nonfiction and being transported to another part of the world without leaving your armchair. It would make a wonderful Christmas present!
May 25, 2019
*https://mrsbbookreviews.wordpress.com
‘This book is about the search for the good life. My husband and I found it, we believe in Tasmania.’
Fiona Stocker – Apple Island Wife
Apple Island Wife Slow Living in Tasmania, is a humorous and insightful memoir that details the adventures of a family who make the sea change from Britain to Tasmania. Told with honesty and a personal blend of wit, Apple Island Wife will be sure to convince readers to take a visit to the beautiful ‘Apple Isle’.
The hustle and bustle of life in Britain and Brisbane, convinced city dwellers Fiona and Oliver Stocker to take a chance on the Apple Isle. In search of a slower and more wholesome way of living, the Stockers expand their family, as they develop their dream home, on a five acre property. Life isn’t easy to begin with, the Stocker family contend with suspect tradesmen, wallabies that destroy their veggie patch and a few huntsman spiders along the way. Gradually, Fiona begins to embrace this new way of life, appreciating the tranquility, isolation and pure beauty of her new abode. There are new skills to be mastered and plenty of worthy friendships to be made. In the process, the Stockers come to embrace the good life.
I have had the pleasure of holidaying in Tasmania and I loved it so much. I still have the pipe dream that one day I will be able to return for an extended period of time, and perhaps even live there permanently. Over twenty seven chapters, along with an Epilogue and Patrons page, this amazing life change is outlined. Beginning with Fiona and Oliver’s life in Britain, it explains their initial move to Brisbane, their busy corporate life, followed by the bold move to Tasmania. Along the way, the Stockers have two children and they add a bevy of animals to their hobby farm.
Apple Island Wife is a memoir told with unfaltering honestly and it charts the mistakes, but also the successes that are made along the way of embracing country life. There are plenty of life knocks to bowl this family over, by the Stokers rise above, with a resolute and resilient attitude.
By far my favourite anecdotes in the memoir were the nature, fauna and flora based passages. Populated by wallabies, snakes, spiders, Tassie devils and much more, the Stokers also add to their brood with guinea fowl, alpacas and sheepdogs. Likewise, the descriptions of the surrounding scenery is simply breathtaking, I could easily visualise this hidden treasure of Australia. Fiona Stoker also draws our attention to the issues of forestry versus old growth forests and the push to protect the Apple Isle.
There are moments of pure despair, where your emotions pull you every which way. This is offset by instances of pure hilarity, often at the cost of the animals featured in Apple Island Wife. At all times I felt like I was in the close company of Fiona Stoker, as her conversational style of storytelling opens up a warm bond between the reader and the host.
Apple Island Wife is a memoir that gently reminds the reader to take a deep breath, slow down and consider a different mode of living. At the close of this memoir, Fiona Stoker has provided a sneak peak of the next chapter of her life, which she lovingly shares again with her audience. The Saddleback Wife is all about the transition to life as a pig farmer’s wife!
*Thanks extended to the author for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Apple Island Wife is book #72 of the 2019 Australian Women Writers Challenge
‘This book is about the search for the good life. My husband and I found it, we believe in Tasmania.’
Fiona Stocker – Apple Island Wife
Apple Island Wife Slow Living in Tasmania, is a humorous and insightful memoir that details the adventures of a family who make the sea change from Britain to Tasmania. Told with honesty and a personal blend of wit, Apple Island Wife will be sure to convince readers to take a visit to the beautiful ‘Apple Isle’.
The hustle and bustle of life in Britain and Brisbane, convinced city dwellers Fiona and Oliver Stocker to take a chance on the Apple Isle. In search of a slower and more wholesome way of living, the Stockers expand their family, as they develop their dream home, on a five acre property. Life isn’t easy to begin with, the Stocker family contend with suspect tradesmen, wallabies that destroy their veggie patch and a few huntsman spiders along the way. Gradually, Fiona begins to embrace this new way of life, appreciating the tranquility, isolation and pure beauty of her new abode. There are new skills to be mastered and plenty of worthy friendships to be made. In the process, the Stockers come to embrace the good life.
I have had the pleasure of holidaying in Tasmania and I loved it so much. I still have the pipe dream that one day I will be able to return for an extended period of time, and perhaps even live there permanently. Over twenty seven chapters, along with an Epilogue and Patrons page, this amazing life change is outlined. Beginning with Fiona and Oliver’s life in Britain, it explains their initial move to Brisbane, their busy corporate life, followed by the bold move to Tasmania. Along the way, the Stockers have two children and they add a bevy of animals to their hobby farm.
Apple Island Wife is a memoir told with unfaltering honestly and it charts the mistakes, but also the successes that are made along the way of embracing country life. There are plenty of life knocks to bowl this family over, by the Stokers rise above, with a resolute and resilient attitude.
By far my favourite anecdotes in the memoir were the nature, fauna and flora based passages. Populated by wallabies, snakes, spiders, Tassie devils and much more, the Stokers also add to their brood with guinea fowl, alpacas and sheepdogs. Likewise, the descriptions of the surrounding scenery is simply breathtaking, I could easily visualise this hidden treasure of Australia. Fiona Stoker also draws our attention to the issues of forestry versus old growth forests and the push to protect the Apple Isle.
There are moments of pure despair, where your emotions pull you every which way. This is offset by instances of pure hilarity, often at the cost of the animals featured in Apple Island Wife. At all times I felt like I was in the close company of Fiona Stoker, as her conversational style of storytelling opens up a warm bond between the reader and the host.
Apple Island Wife is a memoir that gently reminds the reader to take a deep breath, slow down and consider a different mode of living. At the close of this memoir, Fiona Stoker has provided a sneak peak of the next chapter of her life, which she lovingly shares again with her audience. The Saddleback Wife is all about the transition to life as a pig farmer’s wife!
*Thanks extended to the author for providing a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Apple Island Wife is book #72 of the 2019 Australian Women Writers Challenge
April 9, 2024
Fiona Stocker had already moved halfway around the world from the UK to Australia. However, the life they had made there in the city of Brisbane, was becoming a little jaded and they felt that owed their daughter a chance at a slower pace of life.
They had heard good things about Tasmania and a trip out there reinforced those messages. It didn’t take long to find a property that they liked the look of and as a bonus, it came with five acres of land. They made the decision there and then, and set in motion the move to Tasmania.
Soon after they moved in, her husband acquired some alpacas, an animal that he had always fancied keeping, but as he was developing his new cabinet-making company, it fell to Fiona to look after them along with a toddler and a fast-growing bump, would soon be their second child. It did take a while, but slowly they began to settle into their new home and community.
I thought that this was a very enjoyable book, she writes with a bone-dry wit about the life they are having there. It did seem strange to be reading about a family life set in this part of the world having read so many travel books of people beginning a new life in Europe, it is a very different finding that the garden has wallabies, venomous snakes and huntsmen spiders. Not sure I am keen on the latter two…
If there was one flaw, I think each chapter has been adapted from her blog, they reflect the piece written at that time and it didn’t feel like there was a cohesive narrative at certain points in the book. That said, these snapshots of family life and the way that they settled into their new life is an engaging read.
They had heard good things about Tasmania and a trip out there reinforced those messages. It didn’t take long to find a property that they liked the look of and as a bonus, it came with five acres of land. They made the decision there and then, and set in motion the move to Tasmania.
Soon after they moved in, her husband acquired some alpacas, an animal that he had always fancied keeping, but as he was developing his new cabinet-making company, it fell to Fiona to look after them along with a toddler and a fast-growing bump, would soon be their second child. It did take a while, but slowly they began to settle into their new home and community.
I thought that this was a very enjoyable book, she writes with a bone-dry wit about the life they are having there. It did seem strange to be reading about a family life set in this part of the world having read so many travel books of people beginning a new life in Europe, it is a very different finding that the garden has wallabies, venomous snakes and huntsmen spiders. Not sure I am keen on the latter two…
If there was one flaw, I think each chapter has been adapted from her blog, they reflect the piece written at that time and it didn’t feel like there was a cohesive narrative at certain points in the book. That said, these snapshots of family life and the way that they settled into their new life is an engaging read.
January 1, 2019
"I came to know these sights, the expanses of the sky, each majestic roadside gum tree, the dip in the landscape where rocks broke through the earth. They were like old friends, always familiar, and always changing... Such is way the place we live ingrains itself in us and becomes our home."
.
.
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Although Fiona Stocker traces the her personal journey from that of a city dweller to a country woman, Apple Island Wife is a celebration of Tasmania itself. The land, the people, the mountains and the valleys are brought alive in Stocker's narrative. Her setting might be farther away from my own home in Tasmania but the essence of the country brought on waves and waves of nostalgia; right from her interactions with the butcher to simply cozing up in the winter. I have loved reading this book though it has been very painful. Revisiting a place you've reluctantly left behind through another's experience is an ordeal. If you want to know why I love Tassie so much, read this book. Also buy your own, I'm not lending mine.
.
.
.
Although Fiona Stocker traces the her personal journey from that of a city dweller to a country woman, Apple Island Wife is a celebration of Tasmania itself. The land, the people, the mountains and the valleys are brought alive in Stocker's narrative. Her setting might be farther away from my own home in Tasmania but the essence of the country brought on waves and waves of nostalgia; right from her interactions with the butcher to simply cozing up in the winter. I have loved reading this book though it has been very painful. Revisiting a place you've reluctantly left behind through another's experience is an ordeal. If you want to know why I love Tassie so much, read this book. Also buy your own, I'm not lending mine.
December 4, 2019
Enjoyable read about life in rural Tasmania.
Fiona and her husband Oliver lived in London but moved to Brisbane Australia. They had a good life there. Soon a child joined the family. However, they were looking for something different, the "good life". They bought a small farm (5 acres) in rural northern Tasmania (an island but another state of Australia). Life in Tassie, as it´s called locally, is different. Shortly after moving to Tassie, Fiona has another child. They also have chickens and alpacas and grow some of their own produce. Oliver is also a carpenter which helps finance their new life. Fiona begins writing.
There are good, tranquil moments of farm life that Fiona writes about. But, there are also the challenges. The plumbing in their house is terrible and the plumbers they hired weren´t that good. Shearing alpaca seems easy. Can they perform this task themselves or hire someone? There are snakes and other local animals indigenous to Tasmania that they have to deal with.
Fiona started her writing blogging and writing articles from which grew into this book. I enjoyed her writing style and her way of enjoying life no matter what lay ahead.
Enjoyble read but I expected a little more. Maybe a few pictures of life on their farm. Maybe some recipes with local ingredients.
Fiona and her husband Oliver lived in London but moved to Brisbane Australia. They had a good life there. Soon a child joined the family. However, they were looking for something different, the "good life". They bought a small farm (5 acres) in rural northern Tasmania (an island but another state of Australia). Life in Tassie, as it´s called locally, is different. Shortly after moving to Tassie, Fiona has another child. They also have chickens and alpacas and grow some of their own produce. Oliver is also a carpenter which helps finance their new life. Fiona begins writing.
There are good, tranquil moments of farm life that Fiona writes about. But, there are also the challenges. The plumbing in their house is terrible and the plumbers they hired weren´t that good. Shearing alpaca seems easy. Can they perform this task themselves or hire someone? There are snakes and other local animals indigenous to Tasmania that they have to deal with.
Fiona started her writing blogging and writing articles from which grew into this book. I enjoyed her writing style and her way of enjoying life no matter what lay ahead.
Enjoyble read but I expected a little more. Maybe a few pictures of life on their farm. Maybe some recipes with local ingredients.
November 27, 2018
An absolutely delightful look at a family's move into a slower lifestyle. I'm in awe of Fiona and her husband, Oliver, and I think his determination and solid know-how combined with Fiona's positive can-do attitude is the reason for their success.
Fiona's humorous viewpoint makes life's problems bearable, and has ultimately entertained many others. Her writing style is easy and honest, and brings to life mundane situations and changes them into meaningful episodes in her life. Her description of going shopping for bras had me in stitches, and I encourage everyone to read this book, and especially men. It's for everyone, and I really think it gives insight into life, and, gentlemen, maybe into the women in your lives.
My thanks to the Pigeonhole for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
Fiona's humorous viewpoint makes life's problems bearable, and has ultimately entertained many others. Her writing style is easy and honest, and brings to life mundane situations and changes them into meaningful episodes in her life. Her description of going shopping for bras had me in stitches, and I encourage everyone to read this book, and especially men. It's for everyone, and I really think it gives insight into life, and, gentlemen, maybe into the women in your lives.
My thanks to the Pigeonhole for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
September 13, 2021
This is a delightful account of a family making a new life in the beautiful countryside of the Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania. Fiona tells their story with gentle humour and affectionate descriptions of the people she meets. She is refreshingly honest about the challenges of being a Mum to her young children, especially about the tiredness, and the frustration of spending so many hours in the house. She tells of her strategies to sort this out; the weekly playgroup to meet other mums, a walk every day with the children, regular yoga classes, and writing a blog, which happily led to the publication of this book.
The family settles in to country life and over time becomes adept at dealing with llamas, chickens, and guineafowl, whilst establishing a productive vegetable garden and harvesting their own wood for the woodstove. Oliver knocks up some intriguing contraptions in his workshop and at last, Midget, the border collie, works out how to manage her wayward family flock.
A lovely read, which has left me hoping to visit Northern Tasmania one day and looking forward to the sequel, Saddleback Wife.
The family settles in to country life and over time becomes adept at dealing with llamas, chickens, and guineafowl, whilst establishing a productive vegetable garden and harvesting their own wood for the woodstove. Oliver knocks up some intriguing contraptions in his workshop and at last, Midget, the border collie, works out how to manage her wayward family flock.
A lovely read, which has left me hoping to visit Northern Tasmania one day and looking forward to the sequel, Saddleback Wife.
June 13, 2019
A book to dip into . Can't wait for my Tasmanian life to begin
January 22, 2019
I dove into the pages of Apple Island Wife this weekend, hoping the memoirs of a woman making a new home for her family in rural Tanzania would distract me from our frigid Canadian winter. (It was adorable how she described how some individuals might consider Tanzania cold.)
This charming tale was a delightful telling of growth and discovery, stories of everyday life in a new setting, interspersed with droll humour. The account was amusing and educational (being from the North American corner of the world, there were some terms I was unfamiliar with!) While I enjoyed many of the aspects of the presentation, Fiona’s recounted insights into her husband’s interests (and her decided lack of interest in said pursuits) truly amused me – I too will never understand the appeal of a tractor pull or farm auction, no matter how many we attended as children.
Her colourful characterizations of the animals – pet, herd, and pest – as well as the lively description of her neighbours and the land were vividly well done. I could at once envision myself in the midst of the scenes she described. Wallabies, huntsman spiders, and snakes, oh my!
The chapters were not presented in a linear fashion. While I understood the general timeline as a whole, there was a part of me that wondered how old the children were, how many months or years had passed, or whether an incident happened before another if it was not explicitly presented in the writing.
It was relatable for any woman who has ever made a decision and questioned whether they were truly equipped for the change. She found the right balance in presenting how many of us struggle with wanting to be more than a mother or housewife and I was delighted with her term of domestic Chief Executive Officer. She acknowledges her strengths and her weakness with a balance of humility and humour.
Overall, this is a book that I highly recommend for a little glimpse into someone making a home for themselves in a strange-to-them environ. Settle in with a cuppa in a comfy chair – you’ll feel like your about to listen in while a close friend recounts amusing anecdotes of everyday life or the reminiscing of your favourite auntie. It was an intimate glimpse into the Stocker family’s venture into farm life and I, for one, cannot wait to read more.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley courtesy of the author and/or publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Published by Unbound Digital; Publication Date – December 4, 2018
#AppleIslandWife #NetGalley
This charming tale was a delightful telling of growth and discovery, stories of everyday life in a new setting, interspersed with droll humour. The account was amusing and educational (being from the North American corner of the world, there were some terms I was unfamiliar with!) While I enjoyed many of the aspects of the presentation, Fiona’s recounted insights into her husband’s interests (and her decided lack of interest in said pursuits) truly amused me – I too will never understand the appeal of a tractor pull or farm auction, no matter how many we attended as children.
Her colourful characterizations of the animals – pet, herd, and pest – as well as the lively description of her neighbours and the land were vividly well done. I could at once envision myself in the midst of the scenes she described. Wallabies, huntsman spiders, and snakes, oh my!
The chapters were not presented in a linear fashion. While I understood the general timeline as a whole, there was a part of me that wondered how old the children were, how many months or years had passed, or whether an incident happened before another if it was not explicitly presented in the writing.
It was relatable for any woman who has ever made a decision and questioned whether they were truly equipped for the change. She found the right balance in presenting how many of us struggle with wanting to be more than a mother or housewife and I was delighted with her term of domestic Chief Executive Officer. She acknowledges her strengths and her weakness with a balance of humility and humour.
Overall, this is a book that I highly recommend for a little glimpse into someone making a home for themselves in a strange-to-them environ. Settle in with a cuppa in a comfy chair – you’ll feel like your about to listen in while a close friend recounts amusing anecdotes of everyday life or the reminiscing of your favourite auntie. It was an intimate glimpse into the Stocker family’s venture into farm life and I, for one, cannot wait to read more.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley courtesy of the author and/or publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Published by Unbound Digital; Publication Date – December 4, 2018
#AppleIslandWife #NetGalley
November 24, 2018
This is a charming read reminiscent of Toujours Provence, A Beer in the Loire and Under the Tuscan Sun, with one profound difference. The destination is not well known, nor in Europe. It is Tasmania (via a brief spell in Brisbane, Australia). Fiona Stocker, a former office administration worker with a talent for writing, chronicles the life she, her cabinet maker husband Paul and their charming children Daisy (born in Australia) and Kit (born in Tasmania) lead when they decide to leave England.
The author explains that the title associated with Tasmania as Apple Isle is a misnomer. While apples were grown in Tasmania for many years in huge varieties, she explains that “these are popular with people who prefer their food real and interesting, rather than in the regulated, uniform and often boring versions presented to us by supermarket chains."
Many of their experiences are seriously funny and the addition of a number of four-legged beasts to their five-acre plot of land had me in stitches. This was offset with even funnier recounts of two-legged local characters from those teaching yoga, to those shearing alpacas. Certainly, anyone considering a move to Tasmania ideally, but really any remote or rural destination in a foreign land will enjoy this tale. It is better than a travel guide as it recounts the first-hand experiences of people who moved and still remain there and most importantly, puts Tasmania on the map.
“Tasmania’s weather has as many different manifestations as its landscapes. It can be wet, windy and snowy in the middle. Bleak and blustery in the south. Warm and temperate in the north. It can do this on the same day. But things are largely predictable. We became used to mainland Australian habit of being disparaging about Tasmania and chose to ignore it. Over the years, as Tasmania’s appeal in the international tourism markets grew, they began to change their tune.”
If you want to laugh, again and again, but at the same time learn a thing or two about a destination not often publicised, you will love this story. I found myself aghast on occasion at the attitude and dress of some of the locals, not to mention expressions but all is described with a fondness that the author has clearly adopted. Congratulations to the author. A sequel is eagerly awaited. 5 Stars!
The author explains that the title associated with Tasmania as Apple Isle is a misnomer. While apples were grown in Tasmania for many years in huge varieties, she explains that “these are popular with people who prefer their food real and interesting, rather than in the regulated, uniform and often boring versions presented to us by supermarket chains."
Many of their experiences are seriously funny and the addition of a number of four-legged beasts to their five-acre plot of land had me in stitches. This was offset with even funnier recounts of two-legged local characters from those teaching yoga, to those shearing alpacas. Certainly, anyone considering a move to Tasmania ideally, but really any remote or rural destination in a foreign land will enjoy this tale. It is better than a travel guide as it recounts the first-hand experiences of people who moved and still remain there and most importantly, puts Tasmania on the map.
“Tasmania’s weather has as many different manifestations as its landscapes. It can be wet, windy and snowy in the middle. Bleak and blustery in the south. Warm and temperate in the north. It can do this on the same day. But things are largely predictable. We became used to mainland Australian habit of being disparaging about Tasmania and chose to ignore it. Over the years, as Tasmania’s appeal in the international tourism markets grew, they began to change their tune.”
If you want to laugh, again and again, but at the same time learn a thing or two about a destination not often publicised, you will love this story. I found myself aghast on occasion at the attitude and dress of some of the locals, not to mention expressions but all is described with a fondness that the author has clearly adopted. Congratulations to the author. A sequel is eagerly awaited. 5 Stars!
September 20, 2021
I just loved this book. Fiona Stocker writes with such honesty and a great deal of humour about the move she and her husband made firstly from England to Australia then eventually on to Tasmania. It was there she found the place she wanted to finally call home, and the place where she could put down roots and have a life lived close to nature but not a particularly easy way of life.
I really had to admire her pioneering spirit and her determination to settle and create a home. She describes with great warmth the welcome and help she had from her neighbours. There are lots of funny anecdotes about Tasmanian life and about the accidents and incidents that happened to them as they adapt to their new life. Tales of alpacas, chickens, guinea fowl and a rescue sheepdog to name but a few! This book will make you want to visit Tasmania as her deep love of her adopted home, its wonderful scenery and marvellous nature is very evident in her lovely descriptions. The thing I know I would love is that Raspberry Farm – all things raspberry and all sounding mouth wateringly scrumptious! From the attractive cover to the epilogue I enjoyed this memoir and I look forward to reading her next book.
I really had to admire her pioneering spirit and her determination to settle and create a home. She describes with great warmth the welcome and help she had from her neighbours. There are lots of funny anecdotes about Tasmanian life and about the accidents and incidents that happened to them as they adapt to their new life. Tales of alpacas, chickens, guinea fowl and a rescue sheepdog to name but a few! This book will make you want to visit Tasmania as her deep love of her adopted home, its wonderful scenery and marvellous nature is very evident in her lovely descriptions. The thing I know I would love is that Raspberry Farm – all things raspberry and all sounding mouth wateringly scrumptious! From the attractive cover to the epilogue I enjoyed this memoir and I look forward to reading her next book.
November 24, 2018
I absolutely loved this book. It’s gentle humour, real life and fascinating characters and intriguing story of a family finding its way in a whole new setting, lifestyle and country. Fiona and her family have embraced rural country life down in Tasmania and are actually living the dream. I previously knew absolutely nothing about Tasmania so I found this a very interesting insight into what is obviously a very beautiful and interesting Country. I could totally relate to so many things throughout the book and loved every minute of it. I was lucky enough to be able to read this via The Pigeonhole App, one Stave a day over ten days. I immediately fell in love with it and couldn’t wait for each one to arrive. I would highly recommend this book to anyone and cannot wait for the sequel!
December 3, 2018
This was a very enjoyable read about life in rural Tasmania for an expat family who started their down under life in Queensland. This book was full of wonderful people, stunning countryside and great humour. Tasmania has now been elevated in my list of places to visit.
I want to thank the author Fiona and Pigeonhole for allowing us to read this book and I highly recommend it.
I want to thank the author Fiona and Pigeonhole for allowing us to read this book and I highly recommend it.
January 4, 2019
I loved reading Fiona Stocker's memoir "Apple Island Wife." Tasmania is a mysterious-sounding island that not many people know about and Stocker brings it to life in her vivid account. This is an enjoyable, slice-of-life read that offers readers a glimpse into what it's like to live with alpacas and other colorful creatures, i.e. a scorpion.
June 1, 2020
A new life in Tasmania. An enjoyable easy read. Fiona and Oliver are likeable and crave a new life and with a new life brings new skills. Perfect escapism.
September 15, 2019
I wanted to find something worthwhile in this book. It's about an island I love and a community that raised me. Fiona Stocker did none of it justice, if anything she has painted a picture of life in Tasmania so infuriatingly inaccurate I was prompted to write the following review.
From the beginning the descriptions of Tasmanians (particularly appearance, vernacular and general ape like descriptions of their persona) was downright offensive and at times bordered on sounding like a David Attenborough special about a grotesque endangered species. The writing has constructed an illustrated image of Tasmania that likens moving to the island to moving to a remote African country. So much so that reviews in this very thread seem to believe Fiona moved to Tanzania, not Tasmania.
Her passages describing driving through barren landscape filled with dirt roads and no signs of civilisation just minutes after arriving in Tasmania off the boat in Devonport is starkly inaccurate to the point where I wondered if she perhaps fell asleep on the boat and dreamt it. I cannot blame other reviewers for believing the author had moved to Tanzania as the descriptions of the landscape, resources, geography and climate is certainly not describing Tasmania.
Her attempt to make her move sound like a heroic self-sacrificing personal journey to a desolate island falls completely short as anyone who has truly visited or lived in Tasmania will know.
Despite her obvious shock that living in a state classified by the government as being 'regional' might actually mean driving somewhere, the author seems to think that driving 20 minutes from her front door to the local butchers is a Lewis and Clark expedition.
While jumping wildly from admonishing the island for it’s lack of resources and civility to essentially berating locals for not being smart enough to understand the beauty of the island, the author seems to wholeheartedly believe that she alone has cracked the secret to living in it’s unknown landscape.
However much I would love to continue with my disbelief at her descriptions of the landscape (of which I could write an academic essay) her critique of the locals who helped her is one of the most devastatingly inaccurate accounts of Tasmanians I have ever encountered. The obvious steps she has taken to make Tasmanian vernacular sound like the clipped words of a Victorian English peasant begging for money would be comical if it weren't so offensive. Her dialogue between herself and locals reads like a teacher communicating with her kindergarten student, only not half as endearing. The clipped and altered way she has selectively chosen to represent speech is beyond bizarre. No one, not a single person in all my years of living in Tasmania has ever spoken like all of the tradespeople, butchers, farmers, nurses or 'friends' she describes. There are passages that were illegible in their absurdity.
The author seems to be under the impression that she and her husband can do anything Tasmanians can do, only better and with and English accent. Huntsman spiders and snakes may as well be lions on the loose in a zoo, or so one would believe reading the fear and disdain she experiences.
Simple tasks like standing in the sun holding a toddler while directing her neighbour to where he should park is written as if she is trekking five kilometres in an impoverished desert with a child in tow to collect water for a family of nine. There are many descriptions and tedious passages like this throughout the book where the reader is expected to feel sympathetic to her plights. However it produces the opposite effect in that the repetition of complaints and self-indulgence over the most trivial happenings is tedious beyond compare.
My final and most scathing analysis of this novel I’ve saved for the last, the people of Tasmania who are endlessly kind, hardworking and welcoming have been absolutely shot down in a spectacular manner that I cannot quite believe the author thought appropriate to publish. These are the people in her community who no doubt would come to aid if asked, and yet reading the descriptions and dialogue made me infuriated on their behalf.
She refers to tradespeople not by their names but by using degrading nicknames based on their appearance or physical ailments which she has then laid bare for these very people to read in her book. She describes most tradespeople as stupid without ever out rightly saying so, I have taken liberty to demonstrate with the following lines from the book,
"Russ hadn't come across many English arts graduates before."(67)
The idea that Tasmanian men are so stupid they can’t hold a conversation with an arts graduate or alternatively that Tasmanian women are too stupid to have one is beyond maddening. I could have quoted just about any page of the novel in order to demonstrate the heinous and offensive way the author has chosen to represent the locals who create and sustain the community around her but this in particular stood out.
"Nah nah, I got the plans in the car . . . Them pipes should be in the car." (41)
The clipping of words and inaccurate slang that at times is reduced to barely quotable grunts is illegible to not just Tasmanians and Australians but all readers of the English language.
The author goes on to describe that Tasmanians (and Australians by the same extension) have no sense of style and therefore were unable to recognise her own. This leads to a truly confusing and bizarre passage about the author lamenting not being hit on more frequently in Tasmania, but being ‘glanced’ at the moment she arrived home in England for a visit. Here the connotation is embarrassingly clear, the author wants us to know that Tasmanian men are too uncultured and stupid to find her appealing while English men are much wiser.
"I suddenly realised it was years since I'd seen a man on the street and experience that little frisson we all enjoy. I was shocked. Here I was in the prime of life, invisible! . . . Not five minutes after arrival, I passed a dashing young man . . . as we stepped around each other on the crowded pavement we both cast a curious sideways glance. At last, visible again!" (66)
Further to complaining about the most simple of tasks there comes this passage produced upon meeting a nurse at the hospital.
"I explained our situation, how we renovated a home on the mainland, sold it, had driven down through the hinterlands of three states with two vehicles and a strong willed toddler, caught the ferry and come to live here, on an island we knew little about, on a hunch that we'd be happy."(26)
'Situation' here is used as if describing the death of a family member or a traumatic event. For everyone playing along at home this is how moving house works. Again, this a normal person situation that the author has decided is Nobel Peace Prize worthy in its accomplishment.
Finally, a personal favourite. In addition to believing anyone refers to Blundstone boots as ‘blundies’ the author seems to have made up her own slang for various articles of clothing and quoted it directly from the mouths of locals.
"The singlet that he wore I knew to be a Tasmanian icon, the ‘chesty blue'” (68)
No one, in the history of Tasmania has ever called a Bonds singlet a ‘chesty blue’ or Blundstone boots 'blundies', and you can quote me on that.
I fail to understand how anyone could write a book so full of words and have absolutely nothing to say. This novel was boring, offensive, inaccurate and self indulgent.
If all of what Fiona Stocker writes about is completely and wholeheartedly true, which from the review I have written I hope it is very clear I highly doubt then the experience of living in the bottomless, devilish and abominable place that is Tasmania should have sent her packing long ago.
There are some well written sentences in this book. But every lovely or well written sentence that the author has constructed is undercut by the absolute arrogance of her character and pretentiousness of which she describes herself and her situation.
Not only has she utterly alienated her audience but from the dedications in the front of her book it appears the book was not in fact picked up by a publishing house but crowd funded by friends and the few locals she hadn’t managed to offend.
There are dozens of talented, insightful and beautifully skilled Tasmanian writers, please save your time and invest in them instead.
From the beginning the descriptions of Tasmanians (particularly appearance, vernacular and general ape like descriptions of their persona) was downright offensive and at times bordered on sounding like a David Attenborough special about a grotesque endangered species. The writing has constructed an illustrated image of Tasmania that likens moving to the island to moving to a remote African country. So much so that reviews in this very thread seem to believe Fiona moved to Tanzania, not Tasmania.
Her passages describing driving through barren landscape filled with dirt roads and no signs of civilisation just minutes after arriving in Tasmania off the boat in Devonport is starkly inaccurate to the point where I wondered if she perhaps fell asleep on the boat and dreamt it. I cannot blame other reviewers for believing the author had moved to Tanzania as the descriptions of the landscape, resources, geography and climate is certainly not describing Tasmania.
Her attempt to make her move sound like a heroic self-sacrificing personal journey to a desolate island falls completely short as anyone who has truly visited or lived in Tasmania will know.
Despite her obvious shock that living in a state classified by the government as being 'regional' might actually mean driving somewhere, the author seems to think that driving 20 minutes from her front door to the local butchers is a Lewis and Clark expedition.
While jumping wildly from admonishing the island for it’s lack of resources and civility to essentially berating locals for not being smart enough to understand the beauty of the island, the author seems to wholeheartedly believe that she alone has cracked the secret to living in it’s unknown landscape.
However much I would love to continue with my disbelief at her descriptions of the landscape (of which I could write an academic essay) her critique of the locals who helped her is one of the most devastatingly inaccurate accounts of Tasmanians I have ever encountered. The obvious steps she has taken to make Tasmanian vernacular sound like the clipped words of a Victorian English peasant begging for money would be comical if it weren't so offensive. Her dialogue between herself and locals reads like a teacher communicating with her kindergarten student, only not half as endearing. The clipped and altered way she has selectively chosen to represent speech is beyond bizarre. No one, not a single person in all my years of living in Tasmania has ever spoken like all of the tradespeople, butchers, farmers, nurses or 'friends' she describes. There are passages that were illegible in their absurdity.
The author seems to be under the impression that she and her husband can do anything Tasmanians can do, only better and with and English accent. Huntsman spiders and snakes may as well be lions on the loose in a zoo, or so one would believe reading the fear and disdain she experiences.
Simple tasks like standing in the sun holding a toddler while directing her neighbour to where he should park is written as if she is trekking five kilometres in an impoverished desert with a child in tow to collect water for a family of nine. There are many descriptions and tedious passages like this throughout the book where the reader is expected to feel sympathetic to her plights. However it produces the opposite effect in that the repetition of complaints and self-indulgence over the most trivial happenings is tedious beyond compare.
My final and most scathing analysis of this novel I’ve saved for the last, the people of Tasmania who are endlessly kind, hardworking and welcoming have been absolutely shot down in a spectacular manner that I cannot quite believe the author thought appropriate to publish. These are the people in her community who no doubt would come to aid if asked, and yet reading the descriptions and dialogue made me infuriated on their behalf.
She refers to tradespeople not by their names but by using degrading nicknames based on their appearance or physical ailments which she has then laid bare for these very people to read in her book. She describes most tradespeople as stupid without ever out rightly saying so, I have taken liberty to demonstrate with the following lines from the book,
"Russ hadn't come across many English arts graduates before."(67)
The idea that Tasmanian men are so stupid they can’t hold a conversation with an arts graduate or alternatively that Tasmanian women are too stupid to have one is beyond maddening. I could have quoted just about any page of the novel in order to demonstrate the heinous and offensive way the author has chosen to represent the locals who create and sustain the community around her but this in particular stood out.
"Nah nah, I got the plans in the car . . . Them pipes should be in the car." (41)
The clipping of words and inaccurate slang that at times is reduced to barely quotable grunts is illegible to not just Tasmanians and Australians but all readers of the English language.
The author goes on to describe that Tasmanians (and Australians by the same extension) have no sense of style and therefore were unable to recognise her own. This leads to a truly confusing and bizarre passage about the author lamenting not being hit on more frequently in Tasmania, but being ‘glanced’ at the moment she arrived home in England for a visit. Here the connotation is embarrassingly clear, the author wants us to know that Tasmanian men are too uncultured and stupid to find her appealing while English men are much wiser.
"I suddenly realised it was years since I'd seen a man on the street and experience that little frisson we all enjoy. I was shocked. Here I was in the prime of life, invisible! . . . Not five minutes after arrival, I passed a dashing young man . . . as we stepped around each other on the crowded pavement we both cast a curious sideways glance. At last, visible again!" (66)
Further to complaining about the most simple of tasks there comes this passage produced upon meeting a nurse at the hospital.
"I explained our situation, how we renovated a home on the mainland, sold it, had driven down through the hinterlands of three states with two vehicles and a strong willed toddler, caught the ferry and come to live here, on an island we knew little about, on a hunch that we'd be happy."(26)
'Situation' here is used as if describing the death of a family member or a traumatic event. For everyone playing along at home this is how moving house works. Again, this a normal person situation that the author has decided is Nobel Peace Prize worthy in its accomplishment.
Finally, a personal favourite. In addition to believing anyone refers to Blundstone boots as ‘blundies’ the author seems to have made up her own slang for various articles of clothing and quoted it directly from the mouths of locals.
"The singlet that he wore I knew to be a Tasmanian icon, the ‘chesty blue'” (68)
No one, in the history of Tasmania has ever called a Bonds singlet a ‘chesty blue’ or Blundstone boots 'blundies', and you can quote me on that.
I fail to understand how anyone could write a book so full of words and have absolutely nothing to say. This novel was boring, offensive, inaccurate and self indulgent.
If all of what Fiona Stocker writes about is completely and wholeheartedly true, which from the review I have written I hope it is very clear I highly doubt then the experience of living in the bottomless, devilish and abominable place that is Tasmania should have sent her packing long ago.
There are some well written sentences in this book. But every lovely or well written sentence that the author has constructed is undercut by the absolute arrogance of her character and pretentiousness of which she describes herself and her situation.
Not only has she utterly alienated her audience but from the dedications in the front of her book it appears the book was not in fact picked up by a publishing house but crowd funded by friends and the few locals she hadn’t managed to offend.
There are dozens of talented, insightful and beautifully skilled Tasmanian writers, please save your time and invest in them instead.
February 19, 2019
I don’t tend to read memoirs but Apple Island Wife by Fiona Stocker sounded interesting and like a book that I wanted to read. I think that in part it is because I related to the blurb, I have previously moved to New Zealand from England, although back in England now I am contemplating a return.
Fiona’s writing is funny, she has a way with words that had me chuckling away. It reminded me of when I found myself living on ten acres without a clue of what I should be doing. This was proven only a few days after I moved in when I managed to set a field on fire and had to call the fire brigade but I couldn’t remember the full address to give them. Luckily the huge plume of smoke led them directly to me, although I did nearly get charged because I had caused the fire that meant that they had to come. I pled stupid English woman who didn’t know what she was doing and thankfully they bought it, although looking back that isn’t surprising as that is exactly what I was!
Fiona was lucky in that she had a husband who was far more aware of what he should be doing than Fiona or I were. Said husband provides a lot of the laughs in the book, firstly with his attempts at being a ‘proper’ farmer and his mad-capped ideas that generally seem to work out. Then he moves onto building sand surfers and snake wrangling.
The author really sets the scene, I could imagine the farm where they made their home with the wallaby’s and the chickens. The stories of their often amusing interactions with their neighbours reminded me of my neighbours and how they band together and help each other out.
I have to admit that reading Apple Island Wife made me reconsider a return to New Zealand. Perhaps Tasmania would be better, property is certainly cheaper and after reading this book there is a whole neighbourhood that I feel like I know.
My one gripe with the book is that it is too long, a small story about an annoying rooster becomes a full chapter. While amusing the poor rooster didn’t need quite so many words spent on it and there are many instances of this.
I am sure that there are many readers out there that will love this book, and it might even inspire you to make changes in your life. There is a second book coming and I do want to read it, if only to find out the fate of the alpacas.
Fiona’s writing is funny, she has a way with words that had me chuckling away. It reminded me of when I found myself living on ten acres without a clue of what I should be doing. This was proven only a few days after I moved in when I managed to set a field on fire and had to call the fire brigade but I couldn’t remember the full address to give them. Luckily the huge plume of smoke led them directly to me, although I did nearly get charged because I had caused the fire that meant that they had to come. I pled stupid English woman who didn’t know what she was doing and thankfully they bought it, although looking back that isn’t surprising as that is exactly what I was!
Fiona was lucky in that she had a husband who was far more aware of what he should be doing than Fiona or I were. Said husband provides a lot of the laughs in the book, firstly with his attempts at being a ‘proper’ farmer and his mad-capped ideas that generally seem to work out. Then he moves onto building sand surfers and snake wrangling.
The author really sets the scene, I could imagine the farm where they made their home with the wallaby’s and the chickens. The stories of their often amusing interactions with their neighbours reminded me of my neighbours and how they band together and help each other out.
I have to admit that reading Apple Island Wife made me reconsider a return to New Zealand. Perhaps Tasmania would be better, property is certainly cheaper and after reading this book there is a whole neighbourhood that I feel like I know.
My one gripe with the book is that it is too long, a small story about an annoying rooster becomes a full chapter. While amusing the poor rooster didn’t need quite so many words spent on it and there are many instances of this.
I am sure that there are many readers out there that will love this book, and it might even inspire you to make changes in your life. There is a second book coming and I do want to read it, if only to find out the fate of the alpacas.
February 18, 2019
The author has a knack for telling a yarn, no pun intended. There are some people, I think we will all know at least one person this applies to, who can make even the most mundane of tasks become an entertaining story. This is what Stocker does with the stories of her family and her anecdotes. In fact she is probably a written advertisement for upping roots and moving to New Zealand.
It’s amusing, albeit probably unintentionally so. In a way the author downplays the difficulty of adjusting to such a different way of life, climate and culture, with her entertaining stories. What is lost in the midst of it all is the strength and endurance it must have cost them to deal with every situation and new challenge.
What does come through quite strongly is the support people in remote areas need from their neighbours and friends. The advice, the many years of experience and of course the oddities that come with being a person of the land.
I can’t decide which part I enjoyed the most, but there were a fair few laughs along the read. The temperamental alpacas, the cockerel named Vlad or the snake pretending to be a long tailed rat. The neighbour with an affinity to sniff out dead trees, the child-herding dog and the subtle art of wood stacking. Just a small taste of the light-hearted tales within the book.
I enjoyed the way Stocker had no problems taking the mickey out of herself, her husband and their friends. It’s done in a playful and respectful manner, but it doesn’t make it any less funny. It’s a loving and warm-hearted memoir of a family willing to change their entire lives in an attempt to find their best life.
*I received a courtesy copy*
It’s amusing, albeit probably unintentionally so. In a way the author downplays the difficulty of adjusting to such a different way of life, climate and culture, with her entertaining stories. What is lost in the midst of it all is the strength and endurance it must have cost them to deal with every situation and new challenge.
What does come through quite strongly is the support people in remote areas need from their neighbours and friends. The advice, the many years of experience and of course the oddities that come with being a person of the land.
I can’t decide which part I enjoyed the most, but there were a fair few laughs along the read. The temperamental alpacas, the cockerel named Vlad or the snake pretending to be a long tailed rat. The neighbour with an affinity to sniff out dead trees, the child-herding dog and the subtle art of wood stacking. Just a small taste of the light-hearted tales within the book.
I enjoyed the way Stocker had no problems taking the mickey out of herself, her husband and their friends. It’s done in a playful and respectful manner, but it doesn’t make it any less funny. It’s a loving and warm-hearted memoir of a family willing to change their entire lives in an attempt to find their best life.
*I received a courtesy copy*
February 21, 2019
I felt so honoured to be given an insight into the life of Fiona Stoker, husband Oliver, and their adorable children. Fiona’s memoir is an amusing account of how they moved to Tasmania and adapted to a new country, new climate and a totally new way of life.
The anecdotes are both informative and funny, Fiona has a way of making the most mundane tasks seem really amusing. However, by contrast, she describes the most outrageous occurrences as if they happen on a daily basis!
The Stoker’s new life meant that they had to build relationships with neighbours because of the remote rural setting. I like the way Fiona describes the quirky characters and the close sense of community. Everyone seemed to know each other and they pooled tools, resources, and knowledge to make the best of what was available.
I loved how Fiona described her husband Oliver’s tendency to start projects but never quite get round to finishing them. Something that I can certainly relate to! As an animal lover, the recollections of alpaca training and choosing the right hens (to name but a few) had me captivated and chuckling in equal measures.
I was in awe of the way that Fiona left everything behind, including family and friends and moved to a rural country she knew nothing about. It is something that many of us contemplate, but few have the courage to do so, and for that, I take off my hat to her.
The anecdotes are both informative and funny, Fiona has a way of making the most mundane tasks seem really amusing. However, by contrast, she describes the most outrageous occurrences as if they happen on a daily basis!
The Stoker’s new life meant that they had to build relationships with neighbours because of the remote rural setting. I like the way Fiona describes the quirky characters and the close sense of community. Everyone seemed to know each other and they pooled tools, resources, and knowledge to make the best of what was available.
I loved how Fiona described her husband Oliver’s tendency to start projects but never quite get round to finishing them. Something that I can certainly relate to! As an animal lover, the recollections of alpaca training and choosing the right hens (to name but a few) had me captivated and chuckling in equal measures.
I was in awe of the way that Fiona left everything behind, including family and friends and moved to a rural country she knew nothing about. It is something that many of us contemplate, but few have the courage to do so, and for that, I take off my hat to her.
August 16, 2019
Chuckles all the way.
As Fiona herself admits, an art degree from Warwick University didn’t really equip her for life in rural Tasmania. Fiona is a very talented writer and a master at understatement. Here is just one of the many passages that made me chuckle: “No, darling. Lorna is having a baby and I need to help her. Not only did I have to attend to an alpaca birth, but I now had to explain events in terms a one-year old could understand. It was all a bit much for a morning when I’d expected to go to playgroup for some finger painting and a cup of tea”. Brilliant! Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining account of how she and her family survived the transition.
As Fiona herself admits, an art degree from Warwick University didn’t really equip her for life in rural Tasmania. Fiona is a very talented writer and a master at understatement. Here is just one of the many passages that made me chuckle: “No, darling. Lorna is having a baby and I need to help her. Not only did I have to attend to an alpaca birth, but I now had to explain events in terms a one-year old could understand. It was all a bit much for a morning when I’d expected to go to playgroup for some finger painting and a cup of tea”. Brilliant! Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining account of how she and her family survived the transition.
November 13, 2019
Warming
I liked this, some genuinely funny moments and overall a thoroughly enjoyable read. Will definitely read the sequel when it comes out.
I liked this, some genuinely funny moments and overall a thoroughly enjoyable read. Will definitely read the sequel when it comes out.
February 5, 2020
What a delightful memoir this was for me. The author, Fiona Stocker, and her husband Oliver move to a smallholding in Tasmania to escape the heat and stress of city life in Brisbane and so begins a complete change of life for them.
I will confess that I've wanted to go to Tasmania for about thirty years, ever since I met some people from Hobart in the course of my work in South Africa. From their stories, I became fascinated by the island and read a number of books about its history. As a result, when I won this book in a draw, I couldn't wait to read it. Fiona Stocker's memoir was a totally different take on Tasmania and its people and I loved reading about the development of her family's life there. From the lyrical way she writes about the scenery, the weather and the farming culture there, I'm just convinced I'd love it.
I also enjoyed her wry sense of humour and her observations about her husband and her neighbours. The subtle teasing jokes slide in and out of her narrative as if they're just there for those awake enough to see them, smile and move on. If you miss them, well the book is still rich with lovely detailed accounts of their growing menagerie. Who ever knew that Alpacas could be temperamental, that chickens could be social and funny, that guinea fowl could be horrendously noisy?
I will confess that I've wanted to go to Tasmania for about thirty years, ever since I met some people from Hobart in the course of my work in South Africa. From their stories, I became fascinated by the island and read a number of books about its history. As a result, when I won this book in a draw, I couldn't wait to read it. Fiona Stocker's memoir was a totally different take on Tasmania and its people and I loved reading about the development of her family's life there. From the lyrical way she writes about the scenery, the weather and the farming culture there, I'm just convinced I'd love it.
I also enjoyed her wry sense of humour and her observations about her husband and her neighbours. The subtle teasing jokes slide in and out of her narrative as if they're just there for those awake enough to see them, smile and move on. If you miss them, well the book is still rich with lovely detailed accounts of their growing menagerie. Who ever knew that Alpacas could be temperamental, that chickens could be social and funny, that guinea fowl could be horrendously noisy?
December 3, 2020
A great look at life in Tasmania. When we visited Australia last year, I was sad to have missed out on visiting Tasmania. Even more so after reading Fiona Stocker’s Apple Island Wife.
Fed up with the dirt and crowds in London, Fiona and Oliver move to Australia to find somewhere more fresh. Although they never intended to live in a city again, they ended up living and working in Brisbane, by mistake…for seven years. Eventually Fiona persuades Oliver to look at Tasmania - A quieter greener island south of Australia ‘which many Australians think is a freezing wasteland near the Antarctic circle.’
There follows a series of stories of adapting to a totally different way of life with two small children and a carpenter husband who wants to farm alpacas (amongst other things).
Fiona writes with a wry, British sense of humour and irony I found hilarious at times, especially her hormone fuelled rages at Oliver and local tradesmen. Their experiences keeping chickens and alpacas, their new neighbours and the local ‘plumbing’ firm, all make for an interesting read.
Fiona’s stories are similar to those most of us ‘expats’ have experienced, whichever country we have adopted as home, but are written in a very engaging and positive way which I loved. The characters come across strongly and the love of their new homeland even more so. I really want to visit Tasmania now… especially after I read of the local chocolate factory….move over, here I come!!
Fed up with the dirt and crowds in London, Fiona and Oliver move to Australia to find somewhere more fresh. Although they never intended to live in a city again, they ended up living and working in Brisbane, by mistake…for seven years. Eventually Fiona persuades Oliver to look at Tasmania - A quieter greener island south of Australia ‘which many Australians think is a freezing wasteland near the Antarctic circle.’
There follows a series of stories of adapting to a totally different way of life with two small children and a carpenter husband who wants to farm alpacas (amongst other things).
Fiona writes with a wry, British sense of humour and irony I found hilarious at times, especially her hormone fuelled rages at Oliver and local tradesmen. Their experiences keeping chickens and alpacas, their new neighbours and the local ‘plumbing’ firm, all make for an interesting read.
Fiona’s stories are similar to those most of us ‘expats’ have experienced, whichever country we have adopted as home, but are written in a very engaging and positive way which I loved. The characters come across strongly and the love of their new homeland even more so. I really want to visit Tasmania now… especially after I read of the local chocolate factory….move over, here I come!!
March 19, 2019
In search of a different way of life, Fiona Stocker and husband Oliver upped sticks and moved themselves and their young family to rural Tasmania, to a house of dubious construction among five acres of land. It was the start of a number of adventures Fiona probably wouldn’t have predicted, including acting as midwife to a permanently disgruntled alpaca named Lorna (to be honest, I would happily have read a whole book about the alpacas alone. Alpaca Island Wife?) Along with alpaca-, chicken- and children-wrangling, there are some ferocious guinea fowl to contend with and a sheepdog with a propensity for rounding up humans.
I didn’t know much about Tasmania before but now I kind of want to live there, though I’m a bit worried about the snakes. And the spiders, which allegedly grow so large you can see the whites of their eyes as they watch you walk by. I’m not convinced spiders actually have whites of their eyes, but nor do I especially want to find out.
Fiona’s writing style is incredibly entertaining, humorous and engaging, and very honest about her own lack of knowledge and skill about the many and baffling practical jobs to be done. Luckily, husband Oliver appears to just know most of that stuff by some form of osmosis, in that inexplicable way some men, in particular, seem to have. (Having been brought up on a farm probably didn’t hurt.) I laughed out loud many times, not least when the Stockers’ old neighbours come to stay, having prepared as if for an Antarctic expedition (apparently Tasmania, with its more temperate climate, has a reputation elsewhere in Australia as a frozen wasteland.)
This was a lovely escapist (in the best sense of the word) read, with both the location and the personalities - of the family, their neighbours and animals - shining through. I look forward to the next instalment and yes I’d love to go and stay at Langdale Farm (they’re on AirBnB!) if only it wasn’t the literal other side of the world...
September 29, 2019
It is quite rare for me to read memoirs, but I am so glad I took a chance on this delightful book from Fiona Stocker. Do not for one-minute be put off by ‘Wife’ being in the title. Spoiler alert: They have alpacas, but Fiona has no intention of learning to knit – enough said.
The observations and life moments Stocker candidly shares in Apple Island Wife are ones we can all engage with on some level. Despite living in suburbia, we had a septic tank in our backyard when I was very young – did you? And we all remember that kindergarten or school excursion involving suspect tractor-trailer rides and the perils of petting farmyard animals.
But back to those alpacas they acquired (or the alpacas that acquired them) and more circuitously, some of the hilarious yarns Stocker tells of her family’s experiences with them… Boy, does this lady have an endearing sense of humour. A woman to my own heart, this pragmatist calls a spade a spade. But, her often dryly humorous and irreverent observations avoid the soapbox or negative introspection. Continue reading review>> https://bookloverbookreviews.com/2019...
The observations and life moments Stocker candidly shares in Apple Island Wife are ones we can all engage with on some level. Despite living in suburbia, we had a septic tank in our backyard when I was very young – did you? And we all remember that kindergarten or school excursion involving suspect tractor-trailer rides and the perils of petting farmyard animals.
But back to those alpacas they acquired (or the alpacas that acquired them) and more circuitously, some of the hilarious yarns Stocker tells of her family’s experiences with them… Boy, does this lady have an endearing sense of humour. A woman to my own heart, this pragmatist calls a spade a spade. But, her often dryly humorous and irreverent observations avoid the soapbox or negative introspection. Continue reading review>> https://bookloverbookreviews.com/2019...
February 11, 2019
Memoirs can be a tricky thing, after all the writer is putting their life out there for others to read about and hoping that someone is interested enough to pick it up in the first place. I can honestly say this is one of those times you should take the chance and grab a copy of Apple Island Wife as you won’t be disappointed.
Fiona Stocker gives an honest and funny insight into life in Tasmania after she and her husband, along with their daughter Daisy decide to up sticks and move there. From the house hunt to increasing their livestock, the author tells of both the highs and the lows of all that it entails. Her observations on bra fittings and yoga post childbirth had me chucking for ages and most mothers will be able to relate to them. Her husband Oliver’s can do, will do attitude is quite impressive. I can relate to the his shed, his domain part as my husbands man cave (sorry shed) is his pride and joy too. There is only one reason I won’t let him read this book...and that is the land boat....I can deal with his periodical request to have chickens....but his love of tinkering with anything mechanical that can go fast is a battle I will never win...so why put fresh ideas in his head.
I am full of admiration for the way she deals with all the bugs, snakes, creepy crawlies and vengeful alpacas and birds. Having hinted that the next venture is pig farming, I can’t wait to see if Fiona will once again let us into her life and have us chuckling once more.
Fiona Stocker gives an honest and funny insight into life in Tasmania after she and her husband, along with their daughter Daisy decide to up sticks and move there. From the house hunt to increasing their livestock, the author tells of both the highs and the lows of all that it entails. Her observations on bra fittings and yoga post childbirth had me chucking for ages and most mothers will be able to relate to them. Her husband Oliver’s can do, will do attitude is quite impressive. I can relate to the his shed, his domain part as my husbands man cave (sorry shed) is his pride and joy too. There is only one reason I won’t let him read this book...and that is the land boat....I can deal with his periodical request to have chickens....but his love of tinkering with anything mechanical that can go fast is a battle I will never win...so why put fresh ideas in his head.
I am full of admiration for the way she deals with all the bugs, snakes, creepy crawlies and vengeful alpacas and birds. Having hinted that the next venture is pig farming, I can’t wait to see if Fiona will once again let us into her life and have us chuckling once more.
May 20, 2019
The stories that Fiona shares are so human, and her ability to reflect and laugh about some of the more absurd moments make this entire book read like you are relaxing with a glass of wine and chatting with a bestie. I thought I knew a thing or two about Tasmania, and found myself learning so much more, and subsequently, falling in love with this place I have yet to visit. Fiona makes her community a character in the story, and I feel like I could show up tomorrow and feel right at home, which is to say she has done a tremendous job sharing an honest and loving reflection on this amazing little piece of the world.
More than anything else, I love how Fiona brings stories that happened to her, thousands of miles away in a completely different world than mine and nonetheless I could relate to every story she told. Her ability to tell stories in a way that are human and grounded make this more than just a laugh out loud funny memoir, it becomes that and a love story to these chapters in her life.
I loved every page, and I honestly hope there is a sequel coming because I need more of these stories to enjoy with a hot cup of tea on these snowy winter days.
Be sure to grab a copy of this one my friends, although be forewarned, it will increase your wanderlust by 100%.
More than anything else, I love how Fiona brings stories that happened to her, thousands of miles away in a completely different world than mine and nonetheless I could relate to every story she told. Her ability to tell stories in a way that are human and grounded make this more than just a laugh out loud funny memoir, it becomes that and a love story to these chapters in her life.
I loved every page, and I honestly hope there is a sequel coming because I need more of these stories to enjoy with a hot cup of tea on these snowy winter days.
Be sure to grab a copy of this one my friends, although be forewarned, it will increase your wanderlust by 100%.
November 24, 2018
I have thoroughly enjoyed this amusing yet thoughtful account of one English couple’s new life in Tasmania. It brought to life for me the island to which my Uncle and his family emigrated about fifty years ago. I now feel I know a lot more about what my relatives’ lives there must have been like. It was an easy, engaging read.
November 28, 2018
Read this delightful book with Pigeonhole. It tells the story of a family moving to Tasmania to have a better life. It is full of their adventures and told in a very heartwarming way. I felt part of their family and their adventure. Wonderful descriptions of farm life and animals. Look forward to hearing more about them
November 30, 2018
Really charming memoir by a British ex-pat who emigrated first to Australia then settled with her family in Tasmania. The writing is eloquent and frequently funny and makes this a very easy, entertaining read.
Read via the Pigeonhole app. Many thanks to Pigeon and Fiona Stocker for sharing this with us.
Read via the Pigeonhole app. Many thanks to Pigeon and Fiona Stocker for sharing this with us.
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