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Following in the footsteps of his first book, here we have another delightful sojourn at El Valero, in the Las Alpujarras in Spain - at the eco friendly home of Chris, Ana and their five year old daughter Chloë..... also present are the dogs, the sheep – and their eccentric parakeet ‘Porka’. I read the first book in this trilogy years ago (Driving over lemons) and enjoyed it, so I am not really sure why it took me so long to read this second one.
He is now better known for his autobiographical books, Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia (1999, ISBN 0-9535227-0-9) and the sequels, A Parrot In The Pepper Tree (ISBN 0-9535227-5-X) and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society (2006, ISBN 0-9548995-0-4), about his work farming in Spain. All three are also available as audiobooks (Lemons ISBN 0-14-180143-3; Parrot ISBN 0-14-180402-5), and Almond ISBN 0-7528-8597-9, narrated by Stewart. This volume is the second book by Chris Stewart charting his continuing struggles after deciding to go and live a partly self-sufficient life in one of the more remote areas of Andalucia. With his wife Ana, and now his daughter Chloe, he lives in a traditional small farm called El Valero. In the first book in the series – Driving over Lemons – he introduced himself and something of his life. In book two, we find him more settled, continuing to develop the farm, and building his new life.
Summary
As these books go, this is pretty good. He is an engaging writer, and his life and adventures are interesting enough to be worth reading about. He tells us more about his past, and how he came to choose Spain as a destination. His relationship with the local population is generally very good – although some of them are actually incomers too – and they seem to have accepted him. Well that was it: once I’d got the sweet taste of success and had all the fun of getting a book published, I sort of got the bit between my teeth; now there was no stopping me. Next came THE PARROT IN THE PEPPER TREE… that’s not to say that I sat down with the idea of writing a book called “The Parrot in the Pepper Tree”; the title came later, in the way that it usually does. Books have a tendency to name themselves, I think. This volume is the second book by Chris Stewart charting his continuing struggles after deciding to go and live a partly self-sufficient life in one of the more remote areas of Andalucia. With his wife Ana, and now his daughter Chloe, he lives in a traditional small farm called El Valero. In the first book in the series - Driving over Lemons - he introduced himself and something of his life. In book two, we find him more settled, continuing to develop the farm, and building his new life. As these books go, this is pretty good. He is an engaging writer, and his life and adventures are interesting enough to be worth reading about. He tells us more about his past, and how he came to choose Spain as a destination. His relationship with the local population is generally very good - although some of them are actually incomers too - and they seem to have accepted him. All in all people were very nice about the book. Somebody was even good enough to say they thought my style was maturing, which gave me a bit of a boost as you may imagine. “The Parrot” didn’t sell as well as “Lemons”, but apparently this is often the case… unless you happen to be JK Rowlings.
Me. Yes. What is this about shearing sheep in the winter? You don't do that. They will They will freeze to death. They start to laugh, but as they hear the bus chugging up the hill, their laughter gives away to panic, and stones are hurled at the offending corpse. It is to no avail. Chris makes a split-second decision and runs off down to the road to meet Chloe off the bus before it turns the fatal corner, thus sparing his daughter the gruesome sight.
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His fans will recognise the same wry, self-deprecating humour. It's one of the reasons that Driving Over Lemons became such a phenomenal success. You just can't fail to like him and the world he spreads out for you: wayward sheep, eccentric ex-pats, hospitable - and slightly barmy - neighbours, all existing in the awesome scenery of southern Spain's Alpujarras mountains.
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