In preparation for my literary tour of Spain next year, I’ve been reading books set in that country. A recent delightful read was Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia by Chris Stewart, who was once a drummer for the band ‘Genesis’.
Chris and his wife Ana bought a run-down farm in the Alpujarras region of Andalucia in Spain and set about making a home for themselves, and their daughter Chloe who was born soon after they moved there. The farm lacks running water and electricity, and has no access road, so there are some problems to overcome. But Chris, who knows how to shear sheep and turn his hand to many tasks, is an eternal optimist. He talks about his struggles with building, with some difficult neighbours and with local superstitions and customs, but he makes the reader feel his delight in the beauty of the landscape and his satisfaction in living in such a place. It’s rather along the lines of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, so if you enjoyed that, then I can recommend this book. It was published in 1999 and was a success, so he followed it up with two sequels, A Parrot in the Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society. Recently, a new edition of Driving Over Lemons was brought out, with an extra chapter about how life on the farm has gone since he finished the book over 25 years ago.
While I have no desire to buy and renovate an old farm in Spain, I did gain an appreciation of their environmentally friendly lifestyle, eating what they grew and caring for their land. Chris has a good sense of humour, brings the locals alive, and also shows the challenges of life in rural Spain over the past decades.
Have you ever renovated an old house, or does this tempt you to live off the grid? Please let me know your thoughts in a comment.
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Eleanor
I’ve read the first book. In Rick Stein’s Spain he visits Chris and Ana, it’s in the last ten minutes of Episode 4 available free on SBS on demand (Australia) at the moment.
Susannah Fullerton
Oh thanks so much for telling me. I must watch it.
Margaret Debenham
I read these three books quite a few years ago, and loved them – so thanks for the notification about the updated version of Driving Over Lemons. I must buy it! I have fantasized about restoring an old farmhouse – in Italy (near Florence would be perfectly fine) – and growing vegetables and lemons and olives (I do have an olive tree, and I am very fond of it, even though it has not produced an olive in over 30 years), knowing perfectly well I would never do it. But dreams are good.
Susannah Fullerton
I do hope your love tree suddenly decides to produce masses of fruit. They are gorgeous trees, even if they don’t produce olives. I love travelling in Europe and seeing olive trees that are hundreds of years old.
And yes, drams are fabulous. Where would we be without them?