Conville & Walsh

THE CALIPH’S HOUSE is the engrossing story of the purchase and ongoing renovation of an old summer palace in Casablanca, Morocco. It has all the ingredients of a successful commercial book, charting the pitfalls and perils of relocating to a foreign country with a young family, plus the spice of the uniquely Moroccan flavour of local customs and superstitions. Leaky roofs, dodgy drains, baffling bureaucrats and disappearing workmen and the constant sacrifice of sheep to propitiate the palace djinns – all feature in Tahir’s epic battle to reclaim this abandoned palace.

Beautifully illustrated with stunning photos of the decaying grandeur of the summer palace, the book will find a natural home in the market created by A YEAR IN PROVENCE, elevating the genre with true exoticism. In the tradition of DRIVING OVER LEMONS, but with couscous as the foodstuff of choice, THE CALIPH’S HOUSE gives an original slant on our ongoing fascination with north African culture.