Spain Spanish

Jacob Torney, uprooted from his Cumbrian home at the tender age of fifteen-and-a-half, had to get to grips with a new language and culture whether he liked it or not. Thrust into small-town Spanish life just when he should have been studying for his GCSEs, his candid account tells not only of his own ups and downs, but also those of his Guinness-guzzling, tax-evading father, his long-suffering mother, and his happy-go-lucky younger sister, Katie. After steering a shaky course between the pitfalls of adolescence and the huge demands of school life, Jacob holds nothing, or very little, back ...

Por primera vez un volumen reúne la historia de España escrita por Arturo Pérez-Reverte durante más de cuatro años en su columna «Patente de corso» del XL Semanal. Un relato ameno, personal, a ratos irónico, pero siempre único, de nuestra accidentada historia a través de los siglos. Una obra concebida por el autor para, en palabras suyas, «divertirme, releer y disfrutar; un pretexto para mirar atrás desde los tiempos remotos hasta el presente, reflexionar un poco sobre ello y contarlo por escrito de una manera poco ortodoxa.»

Esta novela es la tercera y última del policía nacional Moisés Guzmán. El policía nacional, Moisés Guzmán, se acaba de jubilar y adquiere un pequeño apartamento en la localidad de Blanes, donde piensa pasar su primer verano como pensionista. Allí coincide, en el mismo bloque, con una chica joven que huye de su padre maltratador, un escritor jubilado obsesionado por terminar su último libro y un hombre solitario que se hace acompañar por un perro. Durante la primera semana, muere un hombre en el interior de su coche, cuando está parado en el semáforo de la misma calle donde ...

The first two books in THE PEDLEY CHRONICLES series: BERYL, FRED AND A DOG CALLED TED: When Beryl and Fred decide to sell up and take a camper van tour around Spain with their lovable Cocker Spaniel, Ted, little do they realise how eventful their poorly planned trip will turn out to be. Intending to tour the whole country thoroughly in an anti-clockwise direction, one unexpected incident after another throws them off track and sees their faithful VW Camper, Vernon, transporting them to the south coast well ahead of any real or imagined schedule. Parked up and ready to enjoy the delights of ...

IDLE RICH is the entertaining account of one man’s attempt to turn over a new leaf in Spain. When lifelong underachiever Richie Bannister is offered free board and lodgings in a seaside resort on the south-western coast of Andalucia, he jumps at the chance to escape from the dull Lancashire town where he’s been stuck for the last forty-odd years. His host Peter, a retired photographer, turns out not to be the doddery old fellow he’s expecting to meet, but a man on a mission into which Richie finds himself inadvertently drawn. After his so-far aimless life, this new commitment proves ...

CHANGING PACE IN SPAIN is the entertaining, informative account of one Englishman’s evolution from a fit but placid retiree into a far more dynamic figure. Jim Fairfield has been living in Villajoyosa on the Alicante coast for a year, enjoying life as best he can on his modest pension. Having got to grips with the language to some degree, he begins to feel dissatisfied with his weekly round of walking, cycling and chatting to his new acquaintances and yearns for some chance event to kick-start a more fulfilling life. This occurs on one of his frequent trips to the city, where he ...

From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain's early conquests in the Americas. Hugh Thomas shows Spain at the dawn of the sixteenth century as a world power on the brink of greatness. For Spain and for the world, the decision to send Christopher Columbus west was epochal—the dividing line between the medieval and the modern.

When Janet and Colin Paddison move into their dream home in the countryside inland from Valencia they hope to enjoy a tranquil retirement, especially Colin, an ex-librarian whose desire for peace and quiet has been a lifelong obsession. A boarded-up bar in a nearby hamlet has been closed for years, but when Miguelito the builder sets about restoring the place Colin begins to fear the worst. SEEKING SERENITY IN SPAIN is Janet’s humorous and somewhat fanciful account of her husband’s tireless campaign to hinder the new owners’ efforts to shatter their rural idyll. Colin begins by ...

AN INNOCENT IN SPAIN is the light-hearted account of an unlikely expat’s first months in his new country. Ian Smith might not be the first tubby, middle-aged Englishman to arrive in a small Spanish town, but he’s certainly one of the poorest and most naive. Luckily for him, long-time resident Graham Baker is on hand to help him settle in and somehow survive on his meagre savings. After an initial, potentially calamitous blunder Ian appears to rally, but it’s only a matter of time before he finds himself in dire straits once again. Will he have to return to Lancashire, more penniless ...

This is the story of a broken-hearted woman who had been widowed twice in five years and did not know how to unbreak it. I did not know my heart could shatter so many times or into so many pieces. I felt its fragility and despite feeling strong again and again, now I was tired. I couldn’t stop crying. I had no strength left. I had a quiet, cautious hope that maybe someday, I could find my smile again, but for now? Escapism. Spain was where I might heal, close to the sea. I wanted to see the sun dip into the Mediterranean at sunset and feel its embrace. I wanted to see color again. And I ...

"Author, Gary cements growing reputation...A collection of short stories that give a humorous account of life in a new country." (Salina Patel, The Hounslow Chronicle) "I liked the fact that some of the short stories in this collection were connected and followed on from each other, but at the same time they are stand alone. Great for people like me who are slow readers, I can read a whole story on the train to work and not have to wait all day for the ending." (Carol Wiggins) "I really enjoyed reading these short stories, they are easy to read. I would have liked it if there were more ...

In the fourth and final part of Ernest Postlethwaite’s ground-breaking journal, our hero returns from an unexpectedly eventful trip to England more determined than ever to pursue his dream of achieving total integration into Spanish village life. What could possibly go wrong?

- 'This diary, written by my late husband Ernest Postlethwaite, has been published expressly against his wishes, but with the full and hearty endorsement of my family and friends.' - From the introduction to Part One by Pamela Postlethwaite, Javea, Spain, December 2012 This second instalment of Ernest Postlethwaite's ground-breaking journal charters the continuing progress of a man on a mission to achieve cultural and linguistic integration in a small village in southern Spain. As summer approaches, our hero finds himself confronted by undesirable interruptions to the smooth running of his ...

In the third part of Ernest Postlethwaite's ground-breaking journal he enters the second year of his life in the small Spanish village of La Puebla de Don Arsenio with the laudable intention of consolidating the considerable progress he feels he has made in his quest to integrate into the community. Anticipating an autumn spent peacefully tilling the land and looking after his livestock, events - and Ernest's nemesis, people - soon conspire to complicate proceedings. This unadulterated manuscript will bring tears to the eyes of the most hard-hearted amongst us, as we follow his continuing ...

"Breve historia de la Guerra de la Independencia" ilustra una de las mayores crisis de la historia de España. Carlos Canales analiza cómo el conflicto arruinó la economía y destruyó gran parte de las infraestructuras heredadas de la Ilustración, pero también cómo vio la luz la Constitución Liberal de 1812, considerada el nacimiento de la España Moderna.

Este conjunto de estudios históricos, realizado por el hispanista sueco Sverker Arnoldsson, está considerado entre las primeras y más rigurosas investigaciones sobre las fuentes que establecieron la Leyenda Negra española. Dichos orígenes se situaron en las tensiones surgidas por el dominio de la monarquía hispánica en la península itálica, con especial protagonismo de la competencia comercial en el Mediterráneo entre aragoneses y catalanes y las distintas ciudades-estado italianas.

There is nothing more frustrating than being on vacation and struggling to communicate and make your way through the city. Most tourist destinations have English-speaking zones with attractions that have English covered. But once you get outside of that, it can be tricky. And Spanish-speaking countries are no exception. The good news is that it doesn’t take much to get covered. You’ll find you can quickly learn the essentials that you need for most interactions and situations.

A gentle, lighthearted look at Traditional Spanish Family Cooking. WARNING: There are no paella recipes in this book. In Paul Schaverien’s “It's Not Just Paella” you’re going to get his exact recipes for traditional family recipes from every corner of Spain. Here’s just a small sample of the delicious recipes you’ll find in this cookbook: I’d only been living in my house a few weeks before I met a short, tubby chap and his wife walking towards the house. I was a bit surprised to see them, but even more surprised when he said “Hello mate. Just moved in then?” in a broad ...

What can one young boy do against a man determined to conquer an empire?Horses, sailing ships, Mayans, pyramids and conquistadors... Unbroken is being hailed as “a great read for all ages!” Felipe Ferrer's young life is turned upside down when Hernan Cortes rides into the Ferrer stable yard. Cortes, planning to lead his conquistadors to Mexico, is in desperate need of horses. When Felipe’s father refuses to sell his prize stallion, Majesty, Cortes cheats him out of the horse and sends Ferrer to debtor’s prison. To save Felipe from the same fate his father arranges for the boy to go ...

A CURIOUS AFFAIR is the funny, heart-warming account of an unlikely liaison between a restless Englishwoman and an enigmatic Andalusian man. Thoroughly fed up of commuting to her high-flying job in London, 44-year-old Claire Hadland decides to ditch both her unfaithful husband and her marketing career and spend some time abroad. On her arrival in Guardo, a small northern town, she sets about brushing up her Spanish and making friends, but during a visit to a tiny mountain hamlet she meets Daniel, a rather peculiar man from the south who has as little reason to be in rural Palencia as ...