Return to Holly Cottage: More Tales from a B&B

by Norma Collis, Brian Holstein (Photographer)

Overview

Like entering the home of an old friend, Return to Holly Cottage is a second collection of stories from the beloved 1878 stone farmhouse, otherwise known as "the house that hugs you." Located in Canada's southern Georgian Bay near the famous Bruce Trail, Holly Cottage was a beloved country Bed & Breakfast frequented by fascinating guests and surrounded by quirky neighbours.

Some guests were looking for love, others for a bit of peace and quiet. One particularly memorable Italian-speaking guest was "looking for a bear." Charmed by the beautiful gardens, pristine natural surroundings, and caring hosts, guests returned to Holly Cottage over and over again. Readers, too, will return again and again to these smart, wryly funny, and deeply touching stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781038307149
Publisher:	FriesenPress
Publication date:	06/21/2024
Pages:	132
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.28(d)

About the Author

Norma Collis worked as an elementary school teacher for thirty-three years, with twenty of those years spent as a teacher librarian. An avid, lifelong reader and writer, Norma also runs a monthly event called "Messy Church," for families in the community. Travel to England inspired she and her husband David to open a B&B of their own, Holly Cottage, which they ran for fifteen years.

Norma is the author of Welcome to Holly Cottage (Iguana Press, 2021). She lives in Tillsonburg, Ontario, with her husband, David and their two new rescue cats.

Editorial Reviews

2024-09-16
Collis’ memoir chronicles the happenings at a cozy bed and breakfast.

The author relates an array of stories and brief anecdotes drawn from the years she spent running Holly Cottage, a rustic bed and breakfast in Woodford in rural Ontario. Holly Cottage is an old stone farmhouse built in 1878. Over the years of its operation it welcomed a steady progression of quirky, heartwarming, and memorable guests. Collis tells the stories of these guests in quick, economically narrated chapters. Readers learn about the long line of cats the cottage semi-officially adopted, a rumored ghost on the premises, and how a stuffed iguana ended up posed on the back of a patient hog. Collis, who was adopted as a child, also shares plenty of personal stories, as when she learns about her biological family from a psychic, an experience that “shook [her] to [her] very core.” The prosaic aspects of running a b&b are addressed; Collis discusses such topics as how to deal with getting a bad review, entertaining guests from overseas, and coping with various surprises (because the establishment was a bit reluctant to mail out items guests have left behind, the proprietors were “soon the proud owners of every make and variety of cell phone charger sold”). The tone of all of these stories is uniformly warm and welcoming, giving readers a very likely accurate representation of what staying at Holly Cottage must have been like. “We were happy to see returning guests because it always felt as if good friends were once again spending time and sharing a little bit of their lives with us,” Collis writes, saying she considered those occasions both a privilege and a joy. While reading this book, readers will likely feel the same.

A gentle and touching collection of reminiscences.

Kirkus Reviews