Product Description

A garden at the foot of Europe and a crossroads between Spain, Africa and the New World, Andalucía has been a cultural customs house on the border of the Mediterranean and Atlantic civilizations for more than ten thousand years. Jonah was one of the first explorers to reach its earliest Atlantic settlements; Columbus invented America out of a shipyard in Cádiz; its great river, the Guadalquivir, flowing across Andalucía from the mountains to its vast river plains, watered Spain s history, culture and economy. This book traces its origins from the earliest hominid settlers in the Granada mountains 1.8 million years ago, through successive Phoenician, Greek, Roman and Muslim cultures, and the past five hundred years of modern Castilian rule, up to and including the present day of post-modern novelists in Córdoba and Sevilla, guerrilla urban archaeologists in Torremolinos and Marbella, and underground lo-fi bands in Granada and Málaga. Andalucía is the sum of its ancient cultures, and also a pointer to where Europe is heading, a beacon for both wealthy north Europeans and refugees from the south, a garden of earthly delights for some, a terminal beach for others. MOUNTAINS AND SEAS: From the snowfields of the Sierra Nevada to the marshlands of the Coto Doñana; from the deserts of Almería to the desert shores of the Costa de la Luz. PAINTERS AND POETS: From the cave artists of Benaoján to the abstract expressionists of Granada, via Velázquez and Picasso, and from Cervantes to twenty-first-century literary sharpshooter Juan Bonilla. ARCHITECTS AND PHILOSOPHERS: Hunting for Atlantis in the Doñana; the space-station cities of Italíca; Madinat al-Zahra and the Alhambra; the palaces of the Spanish Golden Age, Calatrava s Alamillo bridge for Sevilla; Andaluz thinkers from Averroes and Maimonides to modern discontents Blas Infante, Lorca and Goytisolo. COMPOSERS AND CANTANTES: Andalucían classical music; Renaissance composers Guerrero and Morales; De Falla and Turina; El Camaron and Enrique Morente; Radio Tarifa and Ketama; Mano Negra, Lagartija Nick and Chambao.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #294456 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
'A cultured and riveting read, with a simmering sense of adventure.' --Irish Times

About the Author
JOHN GILL is the author of the Thomas Cook Guide to Seville and Andalucía and The Essential Gaudí. MICHELLE CHAPLOW has lived and worked in Andalucia for seventeen years. Her love of Spanish culture and traditions is evident in her collection of award-winning images of Andalucia, one of the most extensive in the world. Her work has appeared in books (including National Geographic guide books), newspapers and magazines in Europe, the United States, Australia and China. Her website can be found at: www.michellechaplow.com.

Customer Reviews

History as Rock `n' Roll
In a very short space of time I have, like the author of this book, John Gill, fallen deeply in love with Andalucía - its language, its scenery, its cities, and particularly its music. When I first visited I was captivated by what I saw but had little understanding of what it was I was looking at. Subsequently I researched the subject and the fascination grew, especially with the Al-Andalus period which saw the building of the many Mezquitas and Alcázares, and of course the one and only Alhambra.

Gill takes that a step further, showing how Andalucía is also the origin of the Atlantis myth, the cradle of European civilisation and, perhaps most importantly, the place which saw the birth of Rock `n' Roll. (And you thought it was born in Memphis? Get real!)

Sometimes he strays into territory that isn't strictly Andalucía, as in his excursion to the Prado and deconstruction of Velasquez's Las Meninas, on the pretext that the artist was from Seville, although the painting itself, which gets about eight pages to itself, definitely was not. Normally I would find that irritating, but he gets away with it because he clearly has a passion for the painting (which I share), and because he throws a whole new light on it.

Rather strange is his assertion somewhere along the way that Banderas is the only Spanish actor anyone's heard of. I'm sure the star of Abre Los Ojos and Volver, amongst others, one Ms Penélope Cruz, would not be pleased to discover that.

In a chapter on Anglophone authors in Spain Gill also manages to dis Washington Irving (though not without justification - it's true that some of the Tales are a bit uninteresting, and the archaisms lose their charm pretty quickly), expose Laurie Lee (contrary to his own account, Rosie's drinking partner was too infirm for combat, and was many miles away from the zones in which he put himself in his two Civil War accounts), but also forgive him, and gives George Borrow's itinerary as Russia, Portugal, Spain and Portugal, leaving me for one unsure if the repeat is intentional.

Almost inevitably, when we're talking of Anglophone writers and Spain, we eventually get around to Hemingway. But the sainted Ernesto gets short shrift here, almost dismissed as a second rate author and as a wuss for topping himself. The context for Papa's entry is not purely literary, but is because of his involvement with the corrida. Gill begins his account of Spain's contribution to the world of sport by celebrating the spectacle, but soon gets down to throwing a different light on it as a gay carnival, what with the tight pants, prancing about, and the prospect of a man being penetrated by a sharp object. He depicts it as a group of men executing balletic manoeuvres against a dumb herbivore, but misses the opportunity to question the Spanish, as PJ O'Rourke has done, as a people whose national sport is "teasing farm animals", partly perhaps because he finishes the chapter pointing out the high percentage of Spaniards who oppose the corrida (though I couldn't help wondering how the figures for Brits who dislike soccer would compare).

The penultimate chapter gets round to an account of music of the region, as inevitable as Hemingway, but it's not just another swooning homage to flamenco. Rather it deals with flamenco in the context of the new music that is emerging, albeit under flamenco's heavy influence. In this Gill displays an enviable knowledge, implying lots of time spent sampling the goods.

Rounding things off is a discussion of nationality and nationalism, in which Gill brings things full circle, with the migration from Africa into southern Europe continuing. Gill's position is on the side of the angels, but that of The Economist isn't as far away as he seems to make out.

So, for the lover of las cosas Andaluz this book is a gift: a little off the wall, for sure, but constantly explaining things from a different angle from that usually taken by Lonely Planet (although their book on Andalucía is also recommended). I especially like the way Gill occasionally slips into Spanish, sometimes translated, sometimes not, though inexplicably he resists doing so when it comes to the Reconquista - perhaps because that's how everyone else renders what he calls the Reconquest?

But let's face it. Any book that namechecks Joe Strummer and discusses mosh pits in Granada just has to be worth a look.

Don't bother
Bought as a present for someone about to visit Andalucia. Incoherently written making the information contained in it almost impenetrable.

Andalucia illumined
A richly layered, comprehensive account of Andalucia's past and present cultural and social mix - lively, enthusiastic, witty, and sometimes provocative. A book which should appeal to everyone, whether resident or visitor, who is interested in this southerly corner of Europe where many races, cultures, and traditions have met and mingled over the centuries.