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Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia – Special Anniversary Edition (with new chapter 25 years on)

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Q: You learned many new traditions and customs when you moved to las Alpujarras. For instance, Matanzas — what was that like? Francisco Tárrega was a great composer and teacher of guitar. Among other things, he wrote Lágrimas, a pretty piece that I played in a fast and jolly fashion in the mistaken belief that lágrimas meant “happiness”. It doesn’t; it means “tears”. I searched the little town for signs of the master, but there were none, as he had never actually been there. left Granada behind and climbed over the pass of Suspiro del Moro, the Moor’s sigh, where the last Muslim king had turned to weep as he was exiled forever from his beloved city. Little wonder.” Shepherds were suspicious of the mechanical machine at first, but now, ten years later, there’s not a shepherd here who shears by hand. That may not be entirely a good thing — but it’s a true thing.

Everywhere there remain the traces of Spain’s richly textured history, the caliphate of Cordoba that, when the rest of Europe was still in the Dark Ages, was “the Ornament of the World”. The kingdom of Granada, with its incomparable palace, the Alhambra. Beautiful riverside Sevilla, where all the gold and silver stolen from the Americas was landed and swiftly squandered by Church, monarchy and nobility. Entonces Domingo, como para zanjar la cuestión, dejó caer que yo tocaba la guitarra. Esta noticia hizo que Eduardo diera un entusiástico porrazo en la mesa. After a full minute, I decided to wait. I waited to see what happens after Ana arrived. Maybe she would be a mitigatjng force. She was. I waited to see when the previous farmer finished teaching Chris the Andalucia farming practices and introducing him to other Spanish farmers. I am glad I waited. Also other English transplants showed up in the narrative. And other European/outsiders also showed up, all teaching and learning together.It's unavoidable making the comparison between this book and Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence. Both are memoirs by ex-Pat Brits of their relocation to bucolic parts of Southern Europe, both to be found in my neighborhood book store almost side-by-side under Travel Essays. A blurb from the Daily Telegraph even says Stewart is being talked up as "the new Peter Mayle." Fortunately Stewart compared well--in fact I liked his book quite a bit more than Mayle's. I feel that they have so much to give me. I hope that, in turn, we can offer them things such as walks in the mountains, bird watching with binoculars, or even political experience (left/green or green/left, depending on the day). My Spanish improves with every passing day, invaluable for living here I find.

That is so true. We live in a mountain village near Ronda and, like Chris, I can never see myself leaving here, except in a coffin. Ana told me that shortly after we moved to El Valero, and I was really rather moved by it. Perhaps Ana had been thinking of those words when she followed me uncomplainingly to Andalucia.

Media Reviews

A: I don’t think anyone would ever dare answer part one of that question with a no. You’d lose the beauty contest fair and square. But working for the Rough Guides in 1984 at 33 years old was when I realized what was meant by travelling. The Rough Guide to China was a very significant event in my life. I recap: A lot of that is that I just plain liked Stewart a lot more than Mayle. Where Mayle comes across as privileged, condescending and effete, Stewart comes across as self-effacing, down-to-earth, and as another blurb put it, speaks of his neighbors with "no hint of patronage." Mayle's wife had no real presence in his book, whilel Stewart's Ana definitely makes her personality felt. While Mayle's biggest worry was getting an over-sized stone table into his home, Stewart and his wife plowed their life-savings and work hard to make their sheep farm a going concern. Sort of Books, a small British publisher initially founded to help Stewart publish his debut book (see About us) A: No. I hated anything to do with handymanism. I had to learn to do things for myself though because it was difficult to find anyone to come all the way out here to work. So, I became a builder, carpenter, electrician, plumber, decorator — the lot, achieving at best only a very modest ability. My heart’s not really in it. I have to say that the building of one’s own house is a very great pleasure though. I’ve come to consider — foolishly perhaps — the thought of living in a house built by somebody else as faintly distasteful, like wearing other people’s underclothes. I want to read anything by Chris Stewart. Fiction is not my bag; my new favorite category is travel books. " — Sally, 2/5/2014

A lovely, gentle book. Brilliant tales of a life a world away from Birmingham. Looking forward to reading the next two. Admittedly, it’s country life that brings us all these delights. Other more urban expatriates might see things differently. It’s in the nature of the expat to grumble and criticise the host country, and lord knows there’s enough to moan about… as there is in whatever land you choose to make your stand. If you don’t like it, you can always leave… but I can’t imagine how bad things would have to be to get us to leave. Q: Did you ever doubt the wisdom of buying a farm with no access, no running water, no electricity? Did your wife, Ana, believe in El Valero as strongly as you did, or did it take some convincing? The place is an inspiration, and had I not come to live in this Arcadian valley within this extraordinary country, I never would have found myself, nor the words to describe it. With the money you've got to spend you could afford that place and have some left over to do it up.'

Book Summary

Stewart's adventure in Andalucia is what dreams are made of and has been an absolute delight to read about. The lush gardens set within the mountains seems an idyllic location to set up home and he'll be the envy of millions 'living the dream'. " — Tim, 11/26/2013 Es la historia real de un inglés, que se va con su señora a vivir a una casucha inhóspita en medio de la nada, o bueno, en medio de una zona muy fértil y bonita en Andalucía. Pero el lugar hasta donde llegan se está literalmente cayendo a pedazos, al menos al principio. Luego van armando de a poquito sus cosas. Christopher 'Chris' Stewart (born 1951), was the original drummer and a founding member of Genesis. He is now a farmer and an author. A classmate of Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel at Charterhouse School, Stewart joined them in a school band called The Garden Wall, and they later formed another band with schoolmates Mike Rutherford and Anthony Phillips, called Anon. This band eventually became Genesis in January 1967. Stewart appears on the band's first two singles, "The Silent Sun"/"That's Me" and "A Winter's Tale"/"One-Eyed Hound." Although several demos from Stewart's time with Genesis appear on the Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set, he is not credited with playing on any of them. (Peter Gabriel seems to have played drums on a couple, and the rest do not feature drums.) Far below, beside the river, I caught sight of a little farm in a horseshoe-shaped valley, a derelict house on a cactus-covered crag, surrounded by unkempt fields and terraces of ancient olive trees.

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