Majorcan Mice

Pollensa, in the north of Majorca, is one of my favourite holiday places. 
The light has a chromatic quality, giving it a clarity that attracts artists to the area and writers, too.

One day, we took the train to Soller, a small town with lovely old houses where orange merchants lived years ago.

I did not know at the time, but Alan Sillitoe, the author, rented a house there in the 1950's. 
It was 1963 when I read his book 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'.  I was expecting my first daughter and I had borrowed the novel from the Fishguard Library.

The book impressed me,  describing situations  clearly and simply.  Before this, I had been reading Thomas Hardy but  'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' was different.

Sillitoe's style struck me as a completely new way of writing, not that I had much experience of reading novels at that age, but I realised it was something special.

Alan Sillitoe lived in Soller for a number of years, surviving on a small disability pension from the forces. One night, on returning from the local taverna, he found the kitchen was swarming with mice, which he had to sweep out through the door.

I am given to sudden flights of fancy and remarked to my husband that it must be lovely to live in Soller.
He thought about it before remarking that the winters can be bitterly cold there, hence the mice invasion, probably.

Let's just say I'd like to spend the summer months there, then, with something of Alan Sillitoe's to read.