Miss Savidge moves her house - Christine Adams

'
This story will appeal to those who still believe that an Englishman'
s 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 May'
s house and completed it -
at the cost of her own marriage - tells her aunt'
s life story from the voluminous diaries and letters she left behind.

Christine Adams now runs a Bed and Breakfast in May Savidge'
s old house in Norfolk. Michael McMahon is also the co-author of My Friend the Enemy (978 1 84513 316 0).