Tahir Shah: The caliphs house. A year in Casablanca. Paperback,  Bantam 

I guess what attracted me to this book was the craziness of someone who bought a ruin of a house in Casablanca and moved his entire family from London to Morocco. 

This is exactly what writer Tahir Shah did,  trying to bring a former palace back to its former splendour while living in a single room with 2 adults and 2 children on site, with undergoing renovations.

The full blast of a very different mentality and way of doing things  in Morroco  tests the family constantly, particularly the three guardians that came with the house and the "jinns" who took up residence in the empty house. Jjinns are mischievous, evil spirits by the way who rule the house. I wanted to tear my hair out several times and  felt like shaking the author telling him to get out of there. Still, the book absolutely fascinated me, as did the perseverance by Tahir or his amazing family history that connects him to Morroco. It felt great to get to the last pages seeing his dream come true and was happy I went along on the ride as a reader.