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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 (87 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

87 Reviews
5 star:
 (47)
4 star:
 (26)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (87 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 Fantastic
A really funny, heartwarming book. Driving over lemons is really, really funny. Having spent some time in Spain, I can identify with some of the things the author went through... Read more
Published 25 days ago by Pauline Horner

3.0 out of 5 stars The rain in spain...
...can, according to a chapter at the end of this book, be unpredictable. Stewart describes the river next to his Andalucian farmhouse shriveling away to nothing for a period of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jeremy Walton

5.0 out of 5 stars recommend seller
Ordered this book and was described as good condition pages good but cover has some creases. Book was in fact in perfect condition and posted very promtly.
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. S. D. Whittle

5.0 out of 5 stars satisfaction
if you are looking for good quality value for money products then this is the place to buy. I was extremely satisfied with both the service and the product i received. Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. A. Oliver

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 5 months 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 11 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 15 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 21 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 on 10 Sep 2007 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

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