Author revisits her Tuscan fields of dreams

IN TUSCANY
By Frances Mayes
Random House, $49.95
Review: Barbara Harris

When the cook, poet and writer Frances Mayes bought a house in the Tuscan hills a decade ago, it changed her life.

Mayes' memoirs (Under the Tuscan Sun and Bella Tuscany) were bestsellers and made the American's name synonymous with this region, to which she succumbs each year. Third time round she still oozes with enthusiasm for the people and these "fairy lands forlorn."

And this time we have photographs by Bob Krist. Dream-like images of olive-harvesters casting their drift of gossamer-thin net and exuberant hunters on horseback charging down a country road.

Generous and welcoming though the Tuscans are, maybe it is because Mayes is an outsider that she can peel away the layers so effortlessly. She hungers to find out more.

"I continue to be amazed that I can feel both so at home and, simultaneously, that I've just arrived," Mayes writes.

Mayes revels in the closeness of community and, like the locals, goes daily to the piazza, the hub of village life, even when she has no shopping to do, simply to chat.

Always, it seems, there is a reason to party. Festivals, even market day is cause for celebration.

After all, every day is some saint's day.

And every town claims a food - be it cherries, frogs' legs or salty fried bread - for its particular sagra, or feast day.

This passion for food and wine, and the way it is made, is something Mayes and her poet-husband, Edward, share. Indeed, it is he who contributes a vivid account of the olive harvest and its rituals.

Interspersed throughout this lavish hardback are recipes, with useful cultural and culinary notes, from trattoria (cafes), restaurants and friends.

A substantial book, this ode to Tuscany would brighten anyone's day.