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Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia
 
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Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia (Paperback)

by Chris Stewart (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (83 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk 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

Reviews

Elisabeth Luard. Daily Mail. May 28th 1999.
"A wonderful book: funny, affectionate, no hint of patronage, a true portrait of place and people, reaching deep into the flesh and bones beneath the skin. Tuck it into your holiday luggage and dream"

The Observer (Travel) - 27th June 1999
"A delight".

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Customer Reviews

83 Reviews
5 star:
 (44)
4 star:
 (26)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (83 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book that leaves you warm and happy, 30 Aug 2002
When one thinks of English in Spain, you automatically assume Frank Butcher types in tight Speedo trunks loitering drunk in Lineker's Bar and eating fry-ups all day.

Chris Stewart and his wife Ana are Ex-Pats, but with a difference. Rather than trying to make Spain English, they left these shore to adapt to the Spanish agricultural lifestyle, and enjoy the atmosphere on their new property in Las Alpajurras.

The book brings together a sentiment of blissful happiness, and you can almost smell the lemon blossom on the front cover.

I enjoyed this book as much as I did 'Mukiwa', by Peter Godwin, but without any of the poigniancy and heartache felt in Godwin's work.

A fantastic read, well worth 5 stars.

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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A hot Spanish holiday without the jetlag, 6 Mar 2004
By A Customer
I picked up this expecting a variation on the "Year in Provence" theme and found I was totally wrong. The Englishman abroad idea was still the basis of the book however, there the similarity ended. Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia is much more beievable and real. There is no feeling that the stories have been elaborated or embroidered. You sense a commitment to the simplicity of this way of life and that despite the popularity of the novel the family will not be "selling out" on this lifestyle. At the end I felt as though I had experienced the ups and downs of the first years with him. Whilst I came away knowing I would have hated it in many ways I still thoroughly enjoyed this book. Highly recommended and compulsive reading.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Shows life in rural Spain with love and humour, 6 Aug 2001
I ordered this book with one of your £5 vouchers that I had won in a competition. This was an excellent read and was full of humour and evoked a wonderful feeling of knowing all the locals personally. As someone who loves the Spanish way of life it only served to make me more determined to get to my goal and move there. Chris Stewart's desriptions of the area and the local people were not airey fairy but was full of love and humour and shows that it is possible for an English family to move into the "wilds" of Spain and fit in, rather than congregating along the coast and only mixing with the ex-pat community. I would recommend this book to anyone and have done! It really was an excellent read and I look forward to the next volume.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good reading
I first read Driving Over Lemons a few months after I had moved to Spain - I found it the most witty experience of another ex-pat that I had ever read. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. Rosemary A. Wakelin

4.0 out of 5 stars The Whole Picture
I suppose it was Chris Stewart's portrayal of life as an alien that has landed in the midst of natives in a foreign land that first inspired me to follow a similar path. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Deborah Fletcher

5.0 out of 5 stars Warning: This book is dangerous!
This book is so well written and witty, describing an idylic life in Spain that I am sure many will be tempted to follow in Chris's and my own footsteps. Read more
Published 10 months ago by David Pope

3.0 out of 5 stars Bad sheep and a running river . . .
The odd title of this book refers to the citrus road hazards encountered by the author, Chris Stewart, on his inaugural house-hunting trip in Andalucía, where he is TOLD which... Read more
Published 17 months ago by tallpete33

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantastico
Almost every ex-pat of European nations here in Spain has read this enchanting book and recommends it to all their friends. The characters exist, the lifestyle still exists. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Jo Webb

4.0 out of 5 stars Andalucian escapism ...
Good book for the holidays - especially if you're going to the part of Spain that the book is based in - similar in style to Carol Drinkwater's the Olive Farm, but a little more... Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2007 by Somnambulist

3.0 out of 5 stars A little ....
An average story about an average guy doing what is now an average thing written in an average style with average narrative, average description, average warmth, average humour,... Read more
Published on 31 May 2007 by Super scoop

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative read
I found this book really interesting. Chris Stewart has an engaging writing style and his tale of setting up a home in Andalucia was written in a thoroughly engaging way. Read more
Published on 24 April 2007 by Sarah Faraway

5.0 out of 5 stars It's enought to persuade you to buy a Spanish farm
I loved this book so much, that as soon as I finished it, I ordered the next two.

Chris Stewart brings his adventures on his farm in the Spanish hills to life in a... Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2007 by Gary Nicklin

5.0 out of 5 stars Books in which to escape to Andalucia
Driving Over Lemons and A parrot In The Pepper Tree are books I will read again. I can't wait to read the next one The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society You won't be able to... Read more
Published on 2 Sep 2006 by C. cumpson

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