Reviews for The Mango Orchard
‘Interlaced with sparkling wit, this adventure-memoir-travelogue-love story will captivate any reader who loves Mexico or wonders about his own family tree.' Yucatan Today
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‘Some days I really need a book that warms the heart and today, for me, The Mango Orchard was one of those. It is for the most part a sweet story of a family that had some important beginnings in the dark days preceding the Mexican Revolution, a large family that a hundred years later discovers itself more deeply, and then opens to the remarkable love that flows out of this discovery.' Jim Tipton - Mexconnect.com
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' a family chronicle as exciting as the best adventure stories… a moving account of two memorable and timeless journeys.' ELLE France
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“The Mango Orchard is a modern road movie, full of humour and emotion, as well as a journey to the past, a quest in search of the roots. It is a beautiful human adventure, beyond all differences and prejudices” Livres Hebdo (France)
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“A genealogical quest with a strong flavour of adventure” Richard Sourgnes – Le Républicain Lorrain (France)
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“A genuine and hilarious as well as moving novel” Serge Bressan – La Dernière Heure (Belgium)
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“I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in travel writing, genealogy, family life through the ages, or just looking to be inspired.” Wanderlust Hearts
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Book of the Month – Glamour magazine (Romania)
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Book of the Month – Men’s Health (Romania)
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'A gripping story... make sure it's part of your holiday reading.' Lancashire Living
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'The Mango Orchard is a heady mix of history, family secrets and fantastic travellers’ tales, filled with emotion and set to the inspiring backdrop of Mexican culture… the book offers up some wonderful twists and turns… and offers history, emotion and comedy in equal measure.” Journey Latin America
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'The Mango Orchard... is a pure pleasure. Part travelogue, part touching family history, it artfully weaves the account of Bayley's journey with Arthur's, and the narrative builds to a revelation that will leave only the most obdurate reader unmoved.' Independent on Sunday
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'... a highly enjoyable travelogue, complete with romance, danger and a surprise twist in the family tree.' Horizons Magazine
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'Arthur’s colourful story, and the journey that Bayley takes to uncover it, would be the envy of the Who Do You Think You Are? programme.... The book... is an absorbing mixture of past and present. Part biography, part family history and part travel diary, The Mango Orchard is at once a history lesson, cultural investigation and offers an easy and satisfying read throughout. A journey through the family tree in which the researcher spends little time in archives and much more with the people he meets along the way proves to be uplifting and inspiring, ending in revelation, and perhaps even a new-found sense of belonging...highly entertaining.' Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine
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'...a gripping, heart-warming tale that absolutely deserves to be told. At times he wonders, was his quest sensible? I think it was. These family myths act like balls of wool that stretch around the world and back in time, allowing the possibility, with a little effort, of reconnection.' The Tablet
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'If you’re going to write a memoir, at least have a picaresque story to tell and a punchy narrative style. With careers in advertising and children’s television behind him but, to his credit as a writer and our advantage as readers, not forgotten, Bayley took off on a quest to search out his great-grandfather, Arthur “Arturo” Greenhalgh, who had made a life for himself in South America. Arturo’s wild and woolly historical adventures are echoed in the thrills and spills of Bayley’s latter-day encounters with modern drug dealers, witches, guerrillas and, of course, Juanita, a beautiful, mystical Guatemalan girl ... but what more should I tell you? This is a fine romance, in every sense of the word.' The Times
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'A magical Mexican adventure... Bayley unpicks the story of his ancestor's adventures with much skill and persistence. He has a fine ear for dialogue with a Tarantino-style, comic-book delivery, and the ending, in which he tries to reconcile his elderly grandmother to the truth about her father, is genuinely affecting.' The Independent
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'This sense of the mystical, and of a barely perceived otherworld, chimes with the Mexican experience in these pages, colourful and ghostly, eerie and vibrant, and it makes for a satisfying read.
The history of Mexico’s revolution is perhaps not as well known on this side of the Atlantic, and Greenhalgh was not only a witness to its events but also had experienced some of its central protagonists.
Bayley fleshes out his story with these thrilling, bombastic elements, and eloquently marshals the glittering elements of a very personal story with a hefty dose of topical history that always homes back to the paths of two men’s journeys, taking place a century apart. This is filled with the sights and smells of a very Latino journey, and a healthy dose of wanderlust and the thrill of the open road.' Laurence Mackin – The Irish Times
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'Like the eponymous mango, the book is intrinsically sweet, full of juicy family secrets, and manages to go beyond a simple travelogue, a nod to Bruce Chatwin or even a family biography. Instead Bayley takes us on an aventuro through geography, society and history, from the immigration gates of Ellis Island to the underbelly of Colombia.' Traveller magazine
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'It is a page-turning read... Bayley is an excellent writer and seamlessly weaves in his own experiences with his great grandfather’s life in the turbulent times of the Mexican Revolution. It is a romantic tale, simple and compelling, and – as with all the best family history stories – it has a happy ending. A heart-warming read.' Family History Monthly
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'This stirring book melds travel, adventure and family history together, into a rich, engaging and enjoyable whole.' Your Family Tree
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'As children, some of us grow up with dreaming of faraway lands, overflowing with stories of adventure and mystery. Many of us will allow these dreams to be smothered and forgotten by the burdens of real life, but Robin Bayley is not one of these people. Through his gripping autographical narrative he takes the reader on his epic journey to Mexico, where he attempts to retrace the footsteps of his great grandfather 100 years earlier.
The Mango Orchard is a story so engrossing that once you begin it is hard to put down. Every spare moment would find me buried within its pages, eager to learn the next steps of his intrepid adventure.
Hunting for the treasure of knowledge, Bayley leaves a successful career in England and sets out with no more than a few vague facts given to him by his grandmother, and the feeling that something, somewhere is awaiting his discovery. Like every treasure hunt, Bayley finds himself turning unexpected corners. From a Colombian road trip to a Guatemala romance, his journey is layered with surprises until he finally reaches his destination, a small town in western Mexico, and is met with a discovery far larger than in any of his childhood dreams.
The Mango Orchard is a story that allows the imagination to run wild. It forcefully encourages the reader to think outside the box. It is the potent truth and reality behind the story that makes it both truly astonishing and an essential read.'
Book of the Month – Real Travel Magazine
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‘Fired by stories of his great-grandfather’s exploits in 1890s Mexico, media type Robin Bayley cashes in his redundancy cheque and goes in search of answers. His journey towards his ancestor’s cotton mill – and the nearby mango orchard of the title – is gloriously Latino from the get-go. Deciding to brush up on his Spanish in Guatemala , he falls in love with the golden-eyes Juanita, detours through Colombia with Pablo in his rusty 1970s Dodge and spends the night with a corpse in a Venezuelan brothel – before even making it to the grand revelations of Mexico. Sharply observed, very funny, and infused with the longings and possibilities of the road, it’s a succulent tale.’ Wanderlust Magazine
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'His ability to record his vivid first impressions makes one wish that one had taken the trouble to do the same oneself when visiting new and different places for the first time; his ability to make friends instantly with all sorts and conditions of people gives him the basis for a series of tales – poignant, hilarious or heart-warming - of incidents and encounters on his travels... this is an extraordinary story, great fun to read and a fascinating commentary on Mexican (and British) family life both now and a century ago.' The British Mexican Society
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'This charming and personal account of Robin's quest to find unknown family in Mexico paints a vivid picture of his travels though Latin America, as he researches and then retraces his great-grandfather's steps." Last Frontiers
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‘Bandits, silver and revolution was what Mexico meant to Robin Bayley until he set out to follow in his great-grandfather’s footsteps. His journey across Latin America saw him encounter his own share of lively characters, including witches, drug-dealers and Nazis-turned-diamond-traders, and they now fill the pages of his debut book, The Mango Orchard.
The story of parallel journeys 100 years apart, Bayley’s quest uncovers a family he never knew he had and brings alive both modern-day and revolutionary Mexico .’ Scotland on Sunday
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‘I loved it. Really touching and skilfully done. A beautiful book... I shed a few tears at the end.' Ben Richards, lead writer of Spooks, and author of Confidence and The Mermaid and the Drunks
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‘The Mango Orchard is charming. I love the way Bayley skillfully draws the reader into what is a very intimate and personal story. The fact that almost all families have skeletons in the cupboard somewhere gives it a universal appeal - but then the sheer drama of his discovery takes it well beyond the ordinary. And I got a real sense of the power of the mango grove - this magical, almost mythical place... It had great resonance.' Jason Webster, author of Duende, ¡Guerra! and Sacred Sierra
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‘Cleverly constructed, well paced and very exciting. I like the way Robin Bayley balances two strands of narrative – the family quest and the travelogue. Bayley has a vivid, uncluttered style which is excellent at conveying both mood and sense of place.’
Andrew Lycett, author of Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond and The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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