Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia - Softcover

Stewart, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0953522733 ISBN 13: 9780953522736

Publisher: Sort of Books, 2001

Synopsis

In perfectly good condition

About this title

Review

All Provenced out? Then head further south, to the breathtaking mountainous climes of Andalucia. Just don't be squeamish about driving over lemons. Chris Stewart, skilled sheep-shearer and sometime Genesis drummer, took one look at the Alpujarrás, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and decided that's where he wanted to be. This is the story of his adventures coming to terms with the terrain, the lifestyle and, of course, the locals, who possess all the rugged, homespun charm you'd expect. Stewart soon discovers all the hidden foibles of his bargain purchase, and spends the following year (rendered here in detail) installing the little luxuries of life like, say, water.

However, just when you're worrying that all this might degenerate into a rose-tinted Englishman-finds-nature idyll, Chris's wife enters the fray. Nonsense-free, straight-talking and relentlessly unsentimental, Ada should be a required resource for all travel writers. Ada gets bored with the fake machismo of pig-killing, Ada sees through the selfless "help" of the natives, Ada calls a peasant a peasant. With her on board, Stewart has the perfect counterbalance to his declared optimism, and Driving over Lemons becomes a loving but clear-sighted encomium, economically and wittily written, to a wonderful part of the world. --Alan Stewart

Review

A wonderful book - funny, affectionate, no hint of patronage, a true portrait of place, and people, reaching deep beneath the skin. Tuck it into your holiday luggage and dream. (Elizabeth Luard Daily Mail)

Exquisite ... in Driving Over Lemons the anecdote
flourishes once more, Stewart's briskly robust style
and lack of pretension keep the book rolling along

(Penelope Lively Daily Telegraph)

A humble and enchanting account...Chris Stewart is one of life's bold originals. (Christina Hardyment Independent)

A lyrical portrait of a couple integrating themselves into one of Europe's most beautiful regions. Stewart's writing conveys his amiability...and he has a particularly good ear for dialogue. (Anthony Sattin Sunday Times)

When an author is as modest and humorous as this, his story cannot be told too often. (Elizabeth Buchan The Times)

A funny, observant and personal account of what a man can learn, and what there is to appreciate in life. Marvellous. (John S. Doyle Sunday Tribune)

Edition details

• Publisher: Sort of Books
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0953522733
• ISBN 13: 9780953522736
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288