Judy Marks

Howard Marks’s story has passed into hippie folklore. Thanks to the technical brilliance of his networking skills, it was estimated that he was trafficking as much as a tenth of all the marijuana smoked in the world. But this is only half the story. Intimately involved throughout was Marks’s wife Judy. Here, she tells her own side of the tale.

Ildefonsso Falcones

Snared between two cultures and two loves, one man is forced to choose…

1564, the Kingdom of Granada. After years of Christian oppression, the Moors take arms and daub the white houses of Sierra Nevada with the blood of their victims.

Amidst the conflict is young Hernando, the son of an Arab woman and the Christian priest who raped her. He is despised and regularly beaten by his own step-father for his ‘tainted’ heritage.

Fuelled with the love of the beautiful Fatima, Hernando hatches a plan to unite the two warring faiths – and the two halves of his identity…

Price 9.90€

Paul Preston

Preston knows a great deal about modern Spain. Here, he condenses, in nine brief biographies, the bitter divisions that racked the country during the civil war of 1936-39, ranging far outside those dates to explain what happened. There are three men and one woman from each of the Right and Left, and one neutral: included are Franco himself and Azana, the president of the defeated republic. A compelling book, full of savagery, pathos and insight.

Ernest Hemingway

In Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway shares the sights, the sounds, the excitement, and above all, the knowledge which fuelled his passion for Spain and the bullfight. This remarkable book contains some of his finest writing, inspired by the intense life, as well as the inevitable death, of those hot, violent afternoons…

Ernest Hemingway

High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerrilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war. And there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco’s rebels.

George Orwell

This is a very interesting book for those wanting detailed information on Spains civil war. Orwell’s personal account of his experiences of his build up, being in the front line and then after he was wounded, returning to the political complications during the ever changing scene in Barcelona. Provides a realistic picture of what those times were like and the ideals that were being fought for.

Gerald Brenan

Brenan’s account of his return to Spain after the Civil War makes fascinating reading: one of the first people to search for Lorca’s unmarked grave, he also muses on the great mosque in Cordoba and ancient synagogues in Toledo - little wonder that it was hailed as ‘the ideal travel book’ by the Observer.

Anna Nicholas

Having moved with her family to rural Mallorca to escape the stresses of London life, PR consultant Anna Nicholas continues to commute back to her glitzy Mayfair agency to earn a crust. Meanwhile she is harbouring a bizarre dream to open a luxury cattery on the island - unbeknownst to her long suffering Scottish husband, Alan, and son, Oliver.Life in the mountains is never uneventful as the author gets to grips with phantom sheep, midnight snail hunts, Catalan lessons, ghosts, floods and flighty hens. London also has its challenges, as she juggles eccentric, rich and often neurotic clients between Mayfair and Manhattan and is hotly pursued by lucrative deals. But increasingly Anna finds herself craving the simple life of her Spanish idyll because as she discovers, you can take the girl out of Mallorca, but you can’t take Mallorca out of the girl.Wickedly irreverent, laugh out loud funny and lovingly observed, “Cat on a Hot Tiled Roof” celebrates the wonders of Mallorcan rural life.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

 

1943. As war sweeps across Europe, Max Carver’s father moves his family away from the city, to an old wooden house on the coast. But as soon as they arrive, strange things begin to happen: Max discovers a garden filled with eerie statues; his sisters are plagued by unsettling dreams and voices; a box of old films opens a window to the past. Most unsettling of all are rumours about the previous owners and the mysterious disappearance of their son. As Max delves into the past, he encounters the terrifying story of the Prince of Mist, a sinister shadow who emerges from the night to settle old scores, then disappears with the first mists of dawn . . . Originally published in Spain as a young adult novel, THE PRINCE OF MIST is a mesmerising tale of mystery, romance and adventure.

Cicerone Guide

More and more visitors are now exploring the island’s most dramatic mountain range, the Serra de Tramuntana. The GR221 - ‘La Ruta de Pedra en Sec’ or ‘The Drystone Route’ - is a brand new long-distance trail which makes a complete traverse of the Serra de Tramuntana. It follows old paths and mule tracks linking delightful mountain villages, crossing rugged, limestone mountainsides, running through forests and passing dramatic cultivation terraces. Although new, over half of the 140 km route is now fully signposted and waymarked and the rest is fully accessible, with plentiful services along the route. “Trekking Through Mallorca” covers the whole route in detail, alongside many of its variants and alternatives, and contains all the information walkers need to follow the GR221 through the mountains.

Sold new: 19.50€