Books about Spain

Part of my 'Books about Spain' pinboard on Pinterest...

Click on the following link to see more of books about Spain...

http://pinterest.com/robertbovington/books-about-spain/

more blogs by Robert Bovington...

"Photographs of Spain"	http://bovingtonphotosofspain.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Impressions"	http://bobbovington.blogspot.com/
"postcards from Spain"	http://bovington-posts.blogspot.com/
"you couldn't make it up!"	http://bovingtonycmitup.blogspot.com/
"a grumpy old man in Spain"	http://grumpybobbov.blogspot.com/
"bits and bobs"	http://bovingtonbitsandblogs.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Expressions"	http://spanishsayingsbovington.blogspot.com/
"Spanish Art"	http://bovingtonspanishart.blogspot.com/

Books about Spain

Books about living in Spain are available from Books4Spain.com


http://books4spain.com/blog/?p=691

Recommended Books about Spain 1

Tales of the Alhambra is a collection of essays, verbal sketches, and stories by Washington Irving. Irving lived at the Alhambra Palace in Granada while writing much of the material for his book.

Gerald Brenan's best-known work is 'South From Granada (1957)' which is generally regarded as being one of the best travel books about Spain.

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) is an autobiographical account of an epic journey around Spain in the nineteen thirties. It is 1934 and Laurie Lee, the author, is a young man. He leaves the security of his Cotswold home to embark on an adventure.

Not only, in my opinion, is "Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada” by Washington Irving a jolly good read, but it appears to be a comprehensive history of the series of events and military campaigns that led to the expulsion of the Moors after 700 years on the Iberian Peninsula.

I enjoyed "Castilian Days" by John Hay. Unlike many travel books about Spain, it was not all about cathedrals, churches and castles. The book is a good balance between people and places. The first part of the book is dedicated to the habits and customs of the ordinary people of Castile in the late 19th century. The final chapters are mostly about some of the “must see” sights of this area of Spain – Madrid’s Prado, Segovia, Toledo, the Escorial and Cervantes hometown of Alcalá de Henares.

Robert Bovington
November 2011

Gerald Brenan

Gerald Brenan was an English writer who spent much of his life in Spain and who has written a number of books about the country and its people.
He was actually born in Malta - in 1894 but was educated in England and later served in the British Army in the First World War where he won medals for bravery.
After the war he lived in Spain for a while in the small village of Yegen, in the Alpujarras. He married an American poetess and lived for a time in a house near Málaga but returned to England during the Spanish Civil War.

During the Second World War he was an Air Raid Warden and a Home Guard. Afterwards he returned to Spain where he lived for the remainder of his life. He died at Alhaurín el Grande, Málaga in 1987.

He wrote several books about Spain including 'The Spanish Labyrinth (1943)' and 'The Face of Spain (1951)' but his best-known work is 'South From Granada (1957)' which is generally regarded as being one of the best travel books about Spain.

Gerald Brenan was awarded a CBE in 1982, and was much honoured in Spain.