Miss Savidge Moves Her House

Book excerpt: ‘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).