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Other People's Houses

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Other People's Houses

By: Hilary McPhee
Narrated by: Margot Knight
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About this listen

In Other People’s Houses publishing legend Hilary McPhee exchanges one hemisphere for another.

Fleeing the aftermath of a failed marriage, Hilary McPhee embarks on a writing project in the Middle East for a member of the Hashemite royal family, a man she greatly respects. There she finds herself faced with different kinds of exile, new kinds of banishment. From apartments in Cortona and Amman and an attic in London, McPhee watches other women managing magnificently alone as she flounders through the mire of extreme loneliness.

Other People's Houses is a brutally honest memoir, funny, sad, full of insights into worlds to which she was given privileged access and of the friendships that sustained her. And ultimately, of course, it is a story of returning home, of picking up the pieces and facing the music as her house and her life takes on new shapes.

©2019 Hilary McPhee (P)2020 W. F. Howes Ltd Funny Middle East

Critic Reviews

"What is the instinct to flee? When home offers no comfort McPhee seeks solace in Europe and the Middle East. With an archaeological eye and penetrating intelligence she excavates her own history, politics in the Middle East, life-sustaining friendships and the quiet despair of loneliness. An engrossing and affecting memoir. McPhee is fierce, frank, tender and resolute." (Carrie Tiffany)
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That this book was about McPhee’s thwarted attempts at writing a different book was reminiscent of The First Stone by Helen Garner, which is kind of interesting given that Garner was first published by McPhee Gribble. But unlike the First Stone, this was not a one sided account of an event and I much preferred it. It was part travelogue and part autobiography in the true sense (listen and you will know what I mean). It was informative, topical, thought provoking and sometimes sad. Spoiler alert … the account of her first born and the grief she still felt 40 - 50 years later was very moving, the loss of her husband too - one gets the feeling she was pulling her punches on that one. Finally, I was very surprised when I found out that Hilary was not the narrator - I was convinced it was her voice - very good.

A book about a book and much more

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Beautifully narrated, this memoir weaves events - global to deeply personal - into a tale that fed my imagination and painted stunning portraits of places I’ll never see.

Hilary McPhee’s writing is tender, generous and reflects her love of and skill with, language.

Memoir at its best.

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