books > Driving over Lemons
304pp Original paperback
ISBN: 978-1908745859
ePub ISBN: 978-190866
£9.99
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driving over lemons
by chris stewart
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 sinking your life savings into an old Spanish mountain farm, on the wrong side of the river, with no access road, water supply or electricity, seem like a perfectly reasonable career move.
Chris Stewart, the eternal optimist, transports us to Las Alpujarras, an oddball region south of Granada, and into a series of misadventures with an engaging mix of farmers and shepherds, New Age travellers and ex-pats. The hero of the piece, however, is their farm, El Valero _ a bright patch of mountain studded with olive, almond and lemon groves, nestled above an intersection of two rivers. What better place to set up home with their menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens, doves and a flock of wayward sheep or, indeed, to bring up their daughter Chloé? This anniversary edition of Driving Over Lemons includes a NEW CHAPTER in which we rejoin Chris and Ana, still thriving at El Valero, 25 years on.
Reviews
“When an author is as modest and humorous as this, his story cannot be told too often.”
“A wonderful book – funny, affectionate and reaching deep beneath the skin. Tuck it into your holiday luggage and dream.”
“You just can’t fail to like him and the world he spreads out for you: wayward sheep, eccentric ex-pats, hospitable (and slightly barmy) neighbours…Mr Stewart is that rare thing, the real McCoy”
“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.”