Driving Over Lemons: An Optimist in Andalucia – Special Anniversary Edition (with new chapter 25 years on)

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If you marry that man," which seemed highly likely as it was our wedding day, "you will never be bored." UK-based Seven Seas Films and Tin Hat Film and TV Productions have partnered with Spain’s La Pepa PC to produce a TV series based on the best-selling novel, Driving Over Lemons, which will film in Andalusia.

Sort of Books, a small British publisher initially founded to help Stewart publish his debut book (see About us) A funny, generous, wonderfully written account of an family making a life and home in remote but enchanting southern Spain. Well that’s what our daughter got from the village school. It didn’t cost a lot, but we figured it was the right stuff. However, you may say, things are not what they might be in Spain at the moment… And you wouldn’t be far from the mark. “Nobody would want to be like Spain,” said Robert Boucher, the US ambassador to the EU, recently. “It’s good for nothing but flamenco and red wine.” historical movement, or even a particuarly fine example of Homo sapiens… and you certainly wouldn’t want to emulate a person like me! Oh lawd no… Well, I do it because I love the writing, because it keeps me at it, and because, judging from the sales of my books, there are quite a few people out there who, unaccountably, enjoy reading this stuff. And that, for me, is one of the greatest pleasures, and a good enough reason to keep on doing it.This funny book is required reading for anyone who has ever dreamed of taking up the pastoral life in a foreign country.”- Travel & Leisure

By the time I got to Valencia, the oranges were ripe and I found work on the harvest. It was not as easy as you’d think; it takes a particular twist of the wrist to free the orange from the tree. Sea cual sea la máquina que consigamos, lo que no queremos es una con ruedas de goma. No sirven para nada. Esteban tiene una de ésas, y además es un buen conductor pero es un sinvergüenza, así que no iremos a verle. Well, it's nice to dream but the pittance we've got to spend is hardly going to buy us a place like that.'The place is an inspiration, and had I not come to live in this Arcadian valley within this extraordinary country, I never would have found myself, nor the words to describe it. I knew nothing of Chris Stewart before I read this, and only after did I realise that he was the lead drummer in Genesis which is rather impressive! Well, if you’ve got this far, I hope you’ve enjoyed it. My plan is to expand bits of this brief – but not that brief – biography. Why? you might ask. Why would a person be presumptuous enough to assume that anybody else would be interested in the wretched minutiae of his existence? It’s a good question, and one that I can’t answer easily. After all, it’s not as if I were some great statesman, the kingpin of some essential left Granada behind and climbed over the pass of Suspiro del Moro, the Moor’s sigh, where the last Muslim king had turned to weep as he was exiled forever from his beloved city. Little wonder.”

DRIVING OVER LEMONS has sold well though — in six months we’ve sold 200,000 in the UK. So far, the fanatical public response has been limited to a very agreeable family from Córdoba who walked all the way up the river one summer evening to get their book signed, and an extremely pretty Swiss woman who bought me a beer in a bar in return for signing her three books. I can learn to live with this sort of pressure. A: I don’t think anyone would ever dare answer part one of that question with a no. You’d lose the beauty contest fair and square. But working for the Rough Guides in 1984 at 33 years old was when I realized what was meant by travelling. The Rough Guide to China was a very significant event in my life. I recap: A brilliant book with the feel good factor, makes you want to escape, a great holiday read. " — Lizzie, 1/25/2014 I loved reading about the farm - the seasons, the beauty, the locals, and the little customs of the locals like planting on saints days. I would have liked a lot more about Andalucia in general, beyond the farm.

And of course it’s all true. It’s funny too, and if the book has a message – which I hope it does – then it may be that laughter is the best way to cope with adversity. Then they bought sheep, and their dog chased them up the mountain, and Chris could not get them to come down. The sheep just kept going, heading for the next county or whtever it would be called in Spain. He has no sheep dogs that know how to herd, and he is afraid that they will fall off the mountain. Maybe they should have bought mountain goats instead. What else happened? Try selling their offspring at a good price. That was another fiasco. I feel that they have so much to give me. I hope that, in turn, we can offer them things such as walks in the mountains, bird watching with binoculars, or even political experience (left/green or green/left, depending on the day). My Spanish improves with every passing day, invaluable for living here I find. Admittedly, it’s country life that brings us all these delights. Other more urban expatriates might see things differently. It’s in the nature of the expat to grumble and criticise the host country, and lord knows there’s enough to moan about… as there is in whatever land you choose to make your stand. If you don’t like it, you can always leave… but I can’t imagine how bad things would have to be to get us to leave.