A Review By Keith Smith

The sun-drenched village of Campodimele in the Aurunci Mountains has been called ‘the village of eternity’ by World Health Organisation scientists, after a study revealed the astonishing longevity of its inhabitants. The average life expectancy of Campodimelani men is 90, compared to the European average of 74, while women live to an average age of 86 compared to their European counterparts’ 80. Not only do the villagers live to an extraordinary age, they also enjoy healthy and active lives at an age when many people in the UK have succumbed to general infirmity or the three major plagues of Western life, cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

How do they do it? Tracey Lawson spent a year in the village to find out, and this book is the result. Rather than trying to give any answers, Tracey lets herself become a recognised and welcome part of the community and tells us how it is. How hard the villagers work, how the seasons affect them, what their work is like, and above all what they eat. For essentially this is a glorious recipe book full of dishes which we would love to eat if we could find the ingredients and if , having given as much importance to food as the villagers do, we had the time. None of us have, nor are likely to. So this is a book of dreams. Still, one can pick out some of the many practical recipes and prepare them without having the vegetables picked from the mountain orto behind the house or the wild boar just killed by the menfolk, or the wood-burning open fire, and dream that we too could live to be 100!