Arabella McIntyre-Brown: People come for Dracula then discover true Transylvania

Foreigners come to Transylvania for the Dracula myth, but end up discovering the charm of this region of Romania, said, on Thursday, British author Arabella McIntyre-Brown, at the launch event for the "A Stake in Transylvania" book, at the residence of the British Ambassador in Bucharest.

Arabella McIntyre-Brown moved to Romania in 2010, in Magura, near Zarnesti because, she confesses, that's where she felt "at home". She says that she likes Romanian zacusca, which she calls "summer in a jar", serves her guests blueberry brandy and the traditional British scones and the community in the small Romanian village overlooks her eccentricities because she's a writer.

"People come for Dracula and then they discover the true Transylvania and say 'oh, I didn't know this'. That's why I wanted to write the book, to show the true hard life of Transylvania. But it's also a book about new beginnings - to sell a house in Liverpool, leave behind a stable workplace, friends and move to a country the language of which you barely speak, with no money, no job and no backup plan. People told me I'm brave. In fact, I didn't have a choice," the writer said.

In his turn, the British ambassador to Romania, Andrew Noble, said that "A Stake in Transylvania" is "a book about Romania, but also about the individual and his path through life".

"People who care about people will be interested in this book," the diplomat deemed. He likened the place in Romania where the author decided to live to Narnia. "It's breathtaking. It's as if it's Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. But, beyond the beauty, for the author the sentiment she had in a place discovered while on holiday in Zarnesti mattered."

"I had this acute feeling that I was home. It's a feeling I've looked for for years," she said.

The Ambassador of the United Kingdom spoke of the importance of international tourism, when it comes to the "mark" that a country leaves in the collective mind of people.

"I am for developing tourism, because that's the way I think a country leaves its mark in people's minds. The countries that don't have tourism remain incognito. I was posted in a country with no tourism and almost the entire population of Great Britain cannot tell you where in the world that country is. And it's the tenth biggest country in the world. People don't know where Algeria is. (...) Romania is slightly in that situation. If people came more to Brasov to ski, if they'd go to the Romanian seaside, if they'd travel to Transylvania, to Bucovina, to the monasteries in Oltenia, that would be a good thing to modernize Romania's image and this book serves that same purpose," Noble said.

"A Stake in Transylvania" is the English-language version of the Romanian-language book "Din Liverpool in Carpati" (From Liverpool to the Carpathians), published in 2017.