THE ADVENTURE OF PRINCESS THE PONY

By Margaret Merry

My third children's book, The Adventure Of Princess The Pony, has just been released for sale.

Princess the pony, a miniature Shetland foal, yearns for a playmate. One day, she manages to escape from the corral where she is stabled with her mother and sets off on a mission to find a friend. She has various encounters with other horses, as well as lambs, goats, donkeys and mules. Because she is so small, all the horses she attempts to befriend regard her with contempt, and the other animals want nothing to do with her.

During the course of her adventure, Princess leaves behind her a number of unclosed gates, including a paddock where Luther, who reigns over all the other horses, is grazing. He wanders out of the paddock and leads the horses to a river. A sudden downpour, followed by a flash flood, causes the river to swell and as the horses flee to safety, Luther’s leg is trapped in an abandoned fox’s lair. His companions try to release the leg by pushing their noses into an opening in the mound of soil, but they are all too big. At the last minute, Princess appears. She pushes her nose into the hole, and summoning all her strength, manages to free Luther’s leg.

The other horses applaud her courage and thus she becomes a heroine, with everyone wanting to be her friend.

The Adventure Of Princess The Pony may be purchased direct from the publishers at
http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TheAdventureOfPrincessThePony.html or from all major on line and high street book stores.

TWO MIDDLE-AGED LADIES IN ANDALUSIA

By Penelope Chetwode

Although Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia is one of the best books that have been written about this region of Spain, not many people know of it. This is surprising, since it is such a little treasure of a book, and well worth reading.

One of the middle-aged ladies of the title was the author herself, Penelope Chetwode, (the wife of the late Sir John Betjeman) and the other was a twelve year old mare, called La Marquesa. She belonged to the Duke of Wellington who owned a farm near Llora. Together, on a November morning in the early 1960s, the two middle-aged ladies set off on a riding tour through the north-western part of Granada province, heading due east to Cazorla, in Jaén province. Their itinerary, inspired by famous nineteenth century travel writers such as George Borrow and Richard Ford, was to take them through what were then some of the remotest parts of the provinces, the intention being that they spend the nights in posadas (inns which accommodated horses and other animals) in various towns and villages on the way. The rapid modernisation of Spain means that many of these places have altered considerably since the 1960s and what were then run-down and semi-deserted pueblos are now thriving villages.

Their first night was spent in Moclín, el escudo de Granada (the shield of Granada). Chetwode describes the looming Moorish fort and across the vega to the south, the “great range of the Sierra Nevada, the peaks powdered with the first falls of snow.” From Moclín, they journeyed across wild countryside along rough tracks and precipitous mountain paths, out of Granada and into Jaén. Accommodation for travellers in those days was basic, and sanitation primitive. Chetwode overcame the discomfort of cold bedroom floors by laying down folded brown paper to do duty as a bedside mat. She also had to contend with leaning washstands, distorting mirrors and other uncomfortable and impracticable items of furniture. The village customs she encountered, such as matanzas (pig-killings), are still practiced today. The author faithfully recorded every mouthful she ate in the course of her journey; many of the traditional dishes she mentioned are still enjoyed. As a recent Catholic convert, she dutifully attended mass in the villages and towns in which she stayed.

Undaunted by the rough terrain and precipitous drops, La Marquesa behaved very well indeed, apart from her decidedly unfriendly attitude towards the pigs with which she sometimes had to share overnight accommodation. She was often admired, and when people asked if she was for sale, her rider had to explain that she was on loan from the Duke of Wellington.

Although she encountered very few people on her solitary ride, in the villages and towns Chetwode befriended all kinds of people, including innkeepers and their families, fellow guests, parish priests and helpful members of the Guardia Civil. She wrote: “Touring on a horse seems to bring out all the best in the characters of the people you meet and you do not see them for long enough to get on one another’s nerves.”

Chetwode quoted on the first page of the book the words of Sir Thomas Aquinas : you cannot love a horse because it cannot love you back. When, at the end of her adventure, she went to say goodbye to her companion, the other middle-aged lady, La Marquesa merely flattened her ears and turned away. Chetwode wrote: “Can I really love her when so obviously she does not love me back?”

THE ROAD HOME

By Rose Tremain

It takes an outstanding novelist to make an imaginary character take on a physical and emotional reality. In The Road Home, Rose Tremain skillfully captures the empathy of the reader so that, by the end of the first page, the experiences of Lev, an Eastern European who travels to London to seek work, become compulsive reading.

The story begins with Lev’s long bus journey from his home town. Desolate because of the death of his wife, and facing a bleak future when the sawmill where he is employed closes down, he travels to London to find work. He leaves behind his mother, who makes jewellery from tin so that she can support the family, and his beloved little daughter; he also leaves his close friend, Rudi, a strong and outrageous personality whose life revolves around his old and battered Chevrolet taxi. Britain, Lev quickly discovers, is very different from the wealthy West around which Rudi’s fantasies revolve.

Alone and friendless in London, and thanks to Rudi’s “miscalculating the money question so disastrously”, Lev finds himself homeless, hungry and without employment. Eventually, he is given the task of delivering leaflets for Ahmed’s Kebabs but at the end of the first day he realises that he can’t possibly survive on the pittance he is paid. He is forced to sleep rough, and only when he contacts the woman who was his travelling companion on the bus to London, is he able to find shelter and, at last, a job in a trendy restaurant, washing up. He finds lodgings, and befriends the landlord, Christy. In the restaurant kitchen, Lev watches the chefs preparing food, and quietly learns. After a while, his prospects improve when he is promoted to vegetable preparation and by coincidence, the boy who takes over the washing up is a compatriot, from the same area as Lev. It is from this boy that Lev finds out about a proposed dam which, if it goes ahead, will flood his village.

Life in London is not easy, but although Lev encounters hostility, he also finds love when he begins a relationship with Sophie. He makes friends, too, many of them migrants, like himself, from other countries. When he is sacked from the restaurant, he finds employment with an asparagus farmer. By now, Lev has a goal: he is going to earn enough money, as quickly as he can, so that he can return to his own country and realise his dream.

Every year, migrant Eastern Europeans come to our village, Guajar Alto, seeking work, and like Lev, they leave behind a bleak existence. A recent newspaper report featured a group of unemployed Lithuanians who were living rough in Granada province and supplementing their meagre diet by killing and eating the village cats. Despite the hardships they were forced to endure, they claimed that their lives were better here than in Lithuania.

Rose Tremain portrays with great sensitivity the sad plight of people like Lev, and the prejudices they face when they try to improve their lives by emigrating to wealthy countries. The Road Home is a superbly written, exceptionally good novel.

THE SHADOW OF THE WIND

By Carlos Ruiz Zafón

This spellbinding and intensely atmospheric novel is essential reading for anyone living in Spain. Set in Barcelona, birthplace of the author, it describes how, in the early summer of 1945, a boy called Daniel is taken by his father to a strange building, a ‘place of echoes and shadows’, in the heart of the old city. This is the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’ where, in a bewildering maze of corridors, countless forgotten and obscure titles are housed.

Daniel’s father explains that the library is a sanctuary for every volume shelved there and that it is the tradition, the first time someone visits it, to choose and adopt a book. Thereafter, that book must be cherished by its new owner and never allowed to disappear. After long deliberation, Daniel selects a novel entitled The Shadow of the Wind . Its author is Julián Carax. The young boy senses that the novel had been waiting there for him, in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, all his life - probably since before he was born. His subsequent obsession with the book and its author alters the course of his life.

The Shadow of the Wind begins in Franco’s Spain, just six years after the Civil War. Barcelona, deeply divided by the terrible cruelties of that war, has not recovered from its wounds. An uneasy atmosphere of fear and suspicion remains. In the story, several narratives unfold, all inextricably linked with the lives of Daniel and the enigmatic Julián Carax. Both Julián and Daniel experience passionate love affairs.

In the novel that Daniel took from the Cemetery of Forgotton Books, the Devil is represented by an evil character called Laín Coubert. Daniel later realises that the mysterious person who follows him and manifests himself as a faceless, limping man, leaving in his wake the smell of burning paper in his mission to seek out and burn every book that Carax has ever published, is Coubert himself. He knows that Daniel has a copy of The Shadow of the Wind, Julián’s last novel. However, this harrowing spectre cannot compete, when it comes to evil, with the brutal Inspector Fumero. He is searching for an unnamed, elusive person, connected in some way with Daniel and his friend, Fermín.Towards the end of the novel, he at last finds that person, and the story reaches a bloody climax.

As well as mystery, violence, passion and tragedy, there is also great humour in the book. This is largely represented by the character of Fermín Romero de Torres ( a name he adopted after seeing a poster advertising a famous bullfighter). He is begging on the streets when Daniel first encounters him, and becomes a loyal, lifelong friend, ready to give his life if necessary. Fermín is exuberant, outspoken and incurably roguish. His language is colourful and unrestrained, and there is an amusing scene in which he offends three prim ladies during a bus ride. Even when he is brought home, half dead, after a violent encounter with the brutal Inspector Fumero, his humour remains irrepressible.

The beautiful Clara, Penélope and Bea, three of the main female characters in the book are, in the eyes of their youthful adorers, wholly unobtainable. Closely guarded by jealous fathers, they neverthless contrive to relinquish their virtue and do so with an ease which you wouldn’t expect from well-brought-up young Spanish ladies of that era.

Shadow of the Wind is translated from the Spanish by Lucia Graves, daughter of Robert Graves.

THE WISE OLD BOAR

Sure to become a children’s classic, the tale is all about Bruno, known to the other creatures of the forest as The Wise Old Boar,
because they always seek his counsel whenever they have problems. But in fact, Bruno is actually very stupid. His advice is so silly that when it doesn’t work, the animals blame themselves for failure. One day a dangerous storm approaches. The animals panic and flee to a cave. Bruno also tries to climb into the cave, but gets stuck. Quite by accident, Bruno saves everyone when he blocks the cave entrance, keeping out the flood waters. Instead of praising Bruno for his wisdom, he is now appreciated for his heroism.
The Lonely Digger can be purchased on line direct from the publishers
http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheWiseOldBoar.html

THE LONELY DIGGER

After years of faithful service, Lola the mechanical digger, is abandoned by her owner. Very lonely, she is visited by a succession of forest creatures, none of which are able to stay long enough to become her friend. Then she meets David, another lost soul. David is a lonely little boy whose passion is tinkering with mechanical devices. David’s father bought the quarry where Lola sits and suggests that the digger be cleaned up and painted. The town children decide to help and turn the quarry into their playground. Lola and David now have many new friends and will not be lonely again.
I hope this children’s story will delight readers time and again as children learn about friendship.
The Lonely Digger can be purchased on line direct from the publishers
http://www.strategicbookpublishing.com/TheLonelyDigger.html

INTRODUCTION

Hello

I am Margaret Merry, an artist and writer, living near the tiny village of Guajar Alto in the mountains behind the Costa Tropical, south of the fabulous city of Granada. I am an avid reader and have been asked to set up this blog as a forum for discussion on books for literature buffs living in Spain.

Firstly, I would like to introduce my first two children’s books which have just been published. I will follow this with my candid opinions of what I am reading now and what I have read in the past. I hope my reviews will stimulate some lively discussion and encourage people to read more.

Please have a look at my web site www.margaretmerry.com and my other blog www.guajar.blogspot.com