In this effervescent sequel to Jani's highly acclaimed memoir, 'The Butterflies Fly Backwards', readers are once again transported to Corfu, where her family's remarkable adventures continue.

'This is a warm and funny demonstration of the triumph of the human spirit. Battered by almost every possible disaster, Jani and her husband come through them all, and keep you laughing until the end.' 

Jullian Fellowes - Writer and creator of Downton Abbey

This lighthearted memoir describes the next few years of the author's life in Corfu as she and her husband strive to build their dream home on the island. Set against the backdrop of the looming global financial crisis, equal measures of serendipity, calamity and chaos knock the family's best laid plans off course; a vanishing architect and teams of incompetent Albanian builders stack the odds ever more firmly against them. But having determinedly burnt their bridges in England they have little choice but to keep calm and carry on.

After eight years living afloat in the Ionian, life ashore throws fresh challenges and delights into the family's path. Big fat Greek weddings, superstition and corruption, extraordinary encounters and intrigues, floods, a femme fatale, a new puppy, stray kittens and another lucky escape ... these are only a small part of this rich and colourful Corfiot tapestry.

Triumphs and tribulations are described with the same humour and eternal optimism that made The Butterflies Fly Backwards such a popular book. Jani's deep affection for Corfu and all things Greek shines through in every closely observed detail of life through endless summers and harsher winters, transporting the reader to the sunshine of the island, to the variety of its breathtaking scenery and to the unfailing kindness and warmth of its indomitable, generous people.

The Butterflies Fly Backwards is a lighthearted recollection of a family's serendipitous journey towards a new life in Corfu. 

"Jani’s descriptive prose beckons me back to Corfu, smelling the soft evening air and hearing the sea. 

Charming and amusing in equal measure, this is a book to cheer the saddest heart." 

Joanna Lumley

Swopping high heels and catwalks for oilskins and windswept decks, the author had stepped into married life in unconventional fashion. Sixteen years later, with a calamitous track record of fire, flood and burglaries safely behind them, there was surely nothing left for the Fates to throw at her family. 

Rather than buying a holiday home on a whim they find the boat of their dreams and set sail for Corfu with their two children.
 For eight years they revel in life afloat, cruising the Ionian Islands with an endless procession of friends on board. Far from a sailing journal, this is a story of sun filled days and star spangled nights with a boat thrown in.

Falling ever more under the spell of Corfu and its people, making friends with waiters, taxi drivers, aristocrats and tycoons, learning Greek along the way and becoming increasingly disenchanted with life in England, they decide to build their permanent home on the island.

Their charmed new life in Corfu should have lasted forever, but several pitfalls and one more disaster lay in wait for them ...

With her meticulous eye for detail, her love
 of nature and sense of the ridiculous, the author and illustrator of The Manor House Stories paints a picture of the island from which the vibrant colours, scents, sounds, flavours and characters leap from the pages.

Written and illustrated by Jani Tully Chaplin, this is a lavish journal of watercolours and pencil drawings of the flora, fauna and fascinating natural objects observed during Jani's years living in Corfu and sailing the Ionian on her family's oceangoing catamaran.

This diary is based on sketches made in remote coves, in the thickets of the littoral and in the mountains of the interior. Amongst her personal observations, the text includes many fascinating and informative descriptions of the medicinal, olfactory and culinary uses of the wild plants found in this natural paradise, often revealing surprising links between Ancient Greek civilization, mythology, folklore and modern medicine.

In this delightful book, Jani recreates the atmosphere of Gerry’s childhood, no mean feat, as it is based on her sojourn on the island many decades later. Corfu was then experiencing the boom years of international tourism, which took their toll on the island’s natural beauty, tranquillity and profusion of wildlife. And yet Jani sees through the disagreeable trappings of modern times with her enchanting illustrations and charming texts, which tell good stories as well as providing much fascinating information. She also, I am glad to say, pays close attention to the plants of Corfu, which are just as special as the animals! Come and share the magic by reading Jani's book – it will bring you straight here!

Taken from the introduction to this book by Dr Lee Durrell MBE

A Greek Island Nature Diary is a most unusual book that evokes the skills of an earlier, nineteenth-century writer, and will bring gentle enjoyment to every reader. I defy anyone leafing through this colourful book not to want to flee to the warmth and history of Corfu that shines through on every page.

                                                                                              Taken from the foreword to this book by

                                                                                                John Seymour, Duke of Somerset

                         Cover size: 240 x 190 approx, 112 pages, 70 colour illustrations Please click on Store at top of page to order

The Manor House Stories are a series of 12 children's books with over 400 exquisite illustrations. 

The first story was released in 2013, written and illustrated by Jani Tully Chaplin

Foreword by Julian Fellowes:

"The Manor House Stories create a wonderful and detailed world in miniature full of truth and consequence, like all good stories should, giving us lessons about life but in the most charming way imaginable. No one can accuse the books of soft-soaping the realities of work in a great house, there is plenty of elbow grease required from all the animals and birds employed there, as I should know, but you will find kindness in these pages too, and I suppose I believe that while fate may be challenging for everyone, there is often some kindness in the mix. In my experience anyway.

These lovely little tales contain comments and observations that will be very useful to young readers in the years to come, 

and they will be useful to older readers, too, if I am anything to go by."