Miss Savidge Moves Her House

This story will appeal to those who still believe that an Englishmans home is his castle, and to those who have a soft spot for indomitable old women Daily Telegraph The hardback edition of this book, published in 2009 under the title A Lifetime in the Building, saw its extraordinary story featured not only in the Daily Mail but also Hello magazine and quickly sold out two printings. Now it is re-launched in paperback under a new title to highlight its appeal as the tale of an extraordinary, maverick woman and her even more remarkable achievement. May Savidge lived in a half-timbered house in Hertfordshire. When the council served her with a compulsory purchase notice to make way for a roundabout, May decided she had to move but so did the house. So she had the whole thing dismantled and shipped to the North Norfolk coast and then spent the rest of her life rebuilding it, single-handed. Her fame spread around the world. Antiques Roadshow broadcast, unprecedentedly, two features about her house. Now her niece, Christine Adams, who inherited Mays house and completed it at the cost of her own marriage - tells her aunts life story from the voluminous diaries and letters she left behind. Christine Adams now runs a Bed and Breakfast in May Savidges old house in Norfolk. Michael McMahon is also the co-author of My Friend the Enemy (978 1 84513 316 0).