Gerald Brenan is an institution in Spain but hardly heard of in his native England. A veteran of the trenches of the first war he came to the Alpujarras in 1919, living in Yegen.

It’s a fascinating book that reads like a series of essays interspersed with great insight and empathy with the local people and their way of life.

Adding another intriguing dimension to his story, he gives fantastic accounts of visits from Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf, being on the fringes of the ‘Bloomsbury Set’, which are hilarious.

He mentions our castle in Velez Blanco and moves to brothels in Almeria. Ex pat Scots men, geology, customs and rituals, bandits and absolutely enormous walks across the Sierra Nevada.

In rather shallow fashion though, I am not writing book reviews, I ‘can’ judge a book by it’s cover and this one is Augustus John’s painting of the Alpujarras.

It’s a must especially if you are planning a visit.