The English Neighbour

"The English Neighbour" is a resourceful, vivid, and tirelessly funny story about the clash and fusion of cultures in today{{~}}s age of globalization.

Bulgaria. Middle of Nowhere. The fictional village of Plodorodno (meaning "fertile") is in dire straits. As Bulgaria is gradually opening to the outside world, many of its residents have emigrated in pursuit of a different life, while others cast their hopes on winning the lottery instead of on working the fertile land nearby. One fine day, a true Englishman named John buys a hose in the village and settles there. He is retired chemical engineer yearning for the tranquillity of rural life in the countryside. He has chosen Bulgaria because he has been to - and enjoyed - the Bulgarian seaside several times and he even taken a Bulgarian language course. He dreams of a few acres to call his own, of a garden to cultivate, and of cattle to look after. And while John is delighted to sink deeper into the joys of Bulgarian rustic life, trouble rears its ugly head in the person of his Bulgarian neighbour Nikolai. Victim to delusions of grandeur, Nikolai has assumed the name Nottingham Forest and has even named his cattle after world football stars. Not long after John is making paper hats from The Guardian{{~}}s torn pages and denouncing Queen and country.

"The idea for this book struck me quite by chance in a man from the village of Kamchia near Varna, Veshim explains. "He told me that an Englishman had settled in a neighbouring village. This was some 6 or 7 years ago when a lot of Englishmen were purchasing real estate in Bulgaria. So, "The English neighbour" was a hardworking guy who bought a tractor and started tilling the land locals preferred to lie about in the pub, drink beer try and talk him out of farming. The Englishman couldn{{~}}t get why they considered agriculture a lost cause. Finally, he managed to convince them that one can make profits from agriculture. This story never came out of my mind. So I told it in various forms - first in a feuilleton in the Starshel newspaper, then in a radio play on the Bulgarian National Radio, in a screenplay for a TV series and finally, when the realization of the series was delayed, I wrote the novel. The humour in the book derives from the encounter between two clashing views of life. I seem to have felt very strongly about it and that is why I managed to paint a vivid and interesting picture, but my sense of humour is well-meant."
Mikhail Veshim