The Crocodile by the Door: The Story Of A House, A Farm & A Family

by Selina Guinness

The Crocodile by the Door by Selina Guinness is a remarkable, compelling and moving memoir of a farm, a family and a home.

When Selina Guinness and her partner Colin, both young academics, moved in with Selina's uncle Charles, an elderly bachelor, they had no idea what the coming years held for them: a crash course in farming, tense discussions with helicopter-borne property developers, human tragedy, and the challenge of dragging a quasi-feudal estate at the edge of Dublin into the twenty-first century.

The Crocodile by the Door - a dazzling debut memoir that will appeal to fans of Edmund de Waal, William Fiennes and Richard Benson's The Farm - tells this remarkable story.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Book Club, Ireland

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a poignant and elegant memoir about transformation and restoration - people and architecture. Selina Guinness inherits an old family estate just outside of Dublin and works to restore and renovate it with as much integrity as possible. Restoration work is tough – physical and spiritual, but this is a redemptive story and the house and its family are doing very well now. The author, her family and the villagers stayed with me long after I finished the book.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2112789.html[return][return]Selina ended up taking on the (small, run-down) family estate in the foothills of the Dublin mountains, and combining the burdens of twenty-first century farming with her academic career and family. This is an extraordinary book about dealing with changes in family and society, beautifully written, lucidly and emotionally told, and with no punches pulled in her own self-examination of dealing with the intricacies of both family commitments and government bureaucracy, in the years of the inflation and bursting of the Irish property bubble. It's brilliant and you should all go and get it.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgic yet recording a period of personal and national history - 2000 - 21 in Ireland with the continual building and land developing and greed that came to nought as well as a family learning to be a family, to deal with the family history and property as well as become farmers and landowners with all the responsibilities it brought. Selina is a tough individual and not always a sympathetic one but does appear to try to do her best to maintain the historical status quo but move things on from a history of neglect and Old fashioned Ireland ways of being. Resonated with me due to family history and experience of living in Dublin in 2002 -4 and knowing but not liking some of the bank/building deals and characters involved.

[Sinéad Mcmanus · Rating 3 out of 5]

'The Crocodile by the Door' ultimately highlights how a class divided society tries to forward in modern Ireland, I enjoyed the read, the family loyalty is obvious. Selina does not come across as a likeable character yet she is powerfully honest in her story. I do believe the Guinness name draws you into the book and the sneak peak at this families history did sustain me throughout. The aloofness of the family is possibly genetic or an inherited trait of an older class-obsessed society, it really was interesting. It also is the first book I have read on the once property obsessed Ireland.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely, lyrical memoir. I found myself unable to put it down, though it is in a sense a small story of small places. It has a desperate sense of nostalgia that fells yet very modern. As a confirmed city dweller, it was pure escapism into something that cannot (and probably never can be) true for me in the same way.

[Etain Feeley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it,so descriptive and with both a poignant and humorous thread running throughout. Read, over two weeks.

Some memorable quotes as follows:

"The children came at christmas, shivered over hot water bottles in the absence of central heating and went home again."

"The small room is fuggy with the smell of stale cooking, animals and smoke, the evidence of mice is everywhere"

"Down In The Yard, the new ram looks like Tony Soprano"

"Charles remarks", that while she seems highly competent, he fears she might be a bit grand for us"

"Ancestral Inertia"

"The vanities and minor politics of academia amused him"

"The old hoover, lies next to the sofa, like a dejected dog"

"My uncles ability to adapt his own needs to the gradual obsolescence of his environment is not one we can emanulate"

"My uncle has spent the last few years inhabiting his house, free of female interference, neither he nor the house looks, well on it."

Would highly recommend this book to anyone who would enjoy historical or factual information and who is planning on visiting that particular area, captures an era that is timeless.

[Steve Castley · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book about the efforts to keep a family farm in Ireland. Guinness shares her story and the stories of people involved in her life and their farm. It is a slow paced read, but very enjoyable.

[Bernadette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book at the holiday cottage we were renting so I thought I’d give it a go. It tells an interesting tale of a house in decline and of changing times in Ireland - an easy unchallenging read.

[Nicola Robson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get into this one..did not finish

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it's a well written book with evocative landscape descriptions that show author's love for Tibradden and its land. there is amazingly little inside information about the family, their characters or their inner worries or hopes. Everything is centred around Tibradden and any worries or hopes shown are around its future. I think it's a refreshing approach in the times when we get so many "tell all" stories that often have nothing to do with reality but massage the author's ego.
This story is more personal yet it's not intrusive into Selina's family. She pictures all the Guinesses in positive lights, with a lot tenderness shown toward her late uncle. There is a considerable amount of book devoted to the Kirwans who worked for her uncle for a very long time. They certainly had problems adjusting to the new reality with changing agriculture and high property prices in the celtic tiger era. They definitely ended up badly, with one suicide and a nursing home for the mother and the mentally handicapped boy. Selina devoted almost half of her book to their stories showing her patient attitude towards them. I find it almost too serene and maybe the aim of this book was to clear her name against some local accusiations of how she handled
the Kirwans?

[Paul Chiswick · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting true story and I read it as such. Elements of town versus country, privilege versus service, present versus past. Not particularly well written, as the story - particularly in the early part of the book - was all over the place. Then again, the story held up.
I like that the property developers get their comeuppance in the end and the land is left as it is. Guinness painted the heavyhandiness of the EEC well - together with elements of its skulduggery via a mainland Europe biased grants/incentives system. Makes me glad the UK is leaving the EEC . . .

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful modern memoir, and one that hits close to home. Selina Guiness first inhabits, then inherits, an old Irish home, together with farm lands, and proceeds to do battle with the encroachment of Dublin's ever-expanding urban development that creeps up the South Dublin mountains. Considering that this property is very near to the lands in the South Dublin mountains where my mom grew up, I could see vividly Selina's very accurate descriptions of bucolic countryside and expansive views of Dublin City below. At the core of Selina's book is the tension created by class hierarchies in the Ireland of the last two centuries. Her families lands have been tended for over a century by lower-class farmers who ultimately provided her critical information about those lands and how to sustain them. But her ability to navigate the Euro-centric conservation regulatory regimes made the transition from the 19th Century to the 21st Century possible. A really good book and a very enjoyable read.

[Mdaly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Selina Guinness & family move in with her uncle and eventually inherit the house, staff & hassle.
I enjoyed the book, it was a gentle glimpse into the rarefied world of the dying Anglo-Irish ascendancy and its legacy.
Her spirited defense of the clearly bigoted Uncle Charles was almost amusing. One feels the tragedy that unfolded over the gatehouse would merit deeper reflection.

[Beccy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a rule I am not a fan of autobiographies but this drew me in. Maybe because I am so aware of all the places she described so vividly or maybe because I really needed to know what happened to everyone, especially to the Kirwans.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

26th December 2012: day spent snuggled under the duvet on the sofa reading. I simply could not put the book down.

[Jane Massy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough and extremely enlightening on a somewhat forgotten figure

[Carmel · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok didn't love it.. disappointed as I had heard the author interviewed and recommended it for bookclub as a result.

[catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

really liked this but would love to hear other side of the story,she portrays herself very kindly...

[Tinya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the library reading group

[Jayne Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gently enjoyable.