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Driving
Over Lemons
An
Optimist in Andalucia
CHRIS
STEWART
"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.
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 Meet
Chris Stewart, the eternal optimist.
At age 17 Chris retired as the drummer of Genesis and launched
a career as a sheep shearer and travel writer. He has no regrets
about this. Had he become a big-time rock star he might never
have moved with his wife Ana to a remote mountain farm in Andalucia.
Nor forged the friendship of a lifetime with his resourceful
peasant neighbour Domingo…not watched his baby daughter
Chloë grow and thrive there…nor written this book.
Fate does sometimes seem to know what it’s up to.
Driving Over Lemons is that rare thing: a funny, insightful
book that charms you from the first page to the last…and
one that makes running a peasant farm in Spain seem like a distinctly
gd move. Chris transports us to Las Alpujarras, an oddball region
south of Granada, and into a series of misadventures with an
engaging mix of peasant farmers and shepherds, New Age travellers
and ex-pats. The hero of the piece, however, is the farm that
he and Ana bought, El Valero – a patch of mountain studded
with olive, almond and lemon groves, sited on the wrong side
of a river, with no access road, water supply or electricity.
Could life offer much better than that?
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 Chris
Stewart
prepared for life on a mountain farm in Spain with jobs of doubtful
relevance. After leaving Genesis (he drummed on the first album),
he joined a circus, learnt how to shear sheep, crewed a yacht
in Greece, went to China for the Rough Guides, gained a pilot’s
license in Los Angeles, and completed a course in French cking.
Since writing Driving Over Lemons, Chris, Ana and their daughter
Chlöe continue to live on their farm, with their numerous
dogs, cats, chickens, sheep and one misanthropic parrot. |
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Driving
Over Lemons has sold over 850,000 copies in UK alone
since publication in 1999. The title has been translated into
9 languages. Chris Stewart reads his story on Penguin audiobooks.
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"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, The Daily Telegraph
"A humble and enchanting account…Chris Stewart is one
of life’s bold originals."
Christina Hardyment, The 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, The 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, The Sunday Tribune
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Pub
date June 1999
ISBN
0-9535227-0-9
Price £6.99
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Format
B-paperback (130 x 198)
Extent
240pp |
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Of Books [about
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