The Year We Seized the Day
Elizabeth Best and Colin Bowles
The utterly compelling and inspirational account of how two very different Australian writers tackle their demons walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the legendary medieval pilgrimage across Spain. Joined by grumpy monks, mad nuns and French cyclists with too much testosterone the two-battle exhaustion and their pasts, fuelled by red wine and a perverse determination not to be beaten by a Spanish heat wave, the mountains or themselves. Set against a stunning background of golden wheat fields, misty mountains and tumbledown villages that haven’t changed in centuries, The Year We Seized the Day is utterly compelling, by turns inspiring, moving and blackly funny, as two very different writers recount with astonishing candour an extraordinary journey of a lifetime.
Rick Stein’s Spain - new recipes inspired by my journey off the beaten track
Rick Stein
Spain is a country that tantalises every sense with its colourful sights, evocative music, vibrant traditions and bold cookery. Spanish cooking has a rich history, with flavours reflecting the broad range of cultural influences that resulted in the subtle changes in taste between regions. Rick samples his way through the specialties and hidden treats of each region, taking in the changing landscape from the mountainous northern regions through the Spanish plains to Mediterranean beaches. In his beautifully designed and illustrated cookbook to accompany a major BBC2, 4-part series, Rick has selected over 120 recipes that capture the authentic taste of contemporary Spain. With over 100 location and recipe photographs, this is an essential book for food-lovers as well as a stunning culinary guide to a diverse country.
Recipes to take you there
Unholy Pilgrims
Tom Trumble
Sometimes the slow road can be the fastest way to sort things out
Relationship-challenged, with the resume of a vagrant, Tom Trumble is at one of life’s crossroads. So he takes up an offer to go on a seriously long walk – the ancient Christian pilgrimage of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Despite his good intentions, Tom’s route takes him into every bar along the way while crossing paths with the loopy and the wise, the pious and the distinctly ungodly. He finds himself contending with song-happy evangelists, unlikely scholars and enlightened globetrotters, and randy backpackers out to bed every pilgrim they meet. Not to mention his own very restless demons, some of which lead him to confront troubles he thought he’d left at home. Unholy Pilgrims is an irreverent and engaging take on figuring out what the hell to do with your life.
The Pilgrimage
Paulo Coelho
“The Pilgrimage” paved the way to Paulo Coelho’s international bestselling novel “The Alchemist.” In many ways, these two volumes are companions–to truly comprehend one, you must read the other. Step inside this captivating account of Paulo Coelho’s pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. As he explores the need to find one’s own path. In the end, we discover that the extraordinary is always found in the ordinary and simple ways of everyday people. Part adventure story, part guide to self-discovery, this compelling tale delivers the perfect combination of enchantment and insight.
Recipes to take you there
The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway
Paris in the twenties: Pernod, parties and expatriate Americans, loose-living on money from home. Jake is wildly in love with Brett Ashley, aristocratic and irresistibly beautiful, but with an abandoned, sensuous nature that she cannot change. When the couple drifts to Spain to the dazzle of the fiesta and the heady atmosphere of the bullfight, their affair is strained by new passions, new jealousies, and Jake must finally learn that he will never possess the woman he loves.
Sinning Across Spain: Walking the Camino
Ailsa Piper
Walking has been the constant in Ailsa Piper’s life. Setting down one foot after the other takes her to a transformative-and transcendent-place. Her bestselling memoir Sinning Across Spain was inspired by the tradition of medieval walkers who were paid by others to carry their sins to holy places. The cargo included anger, envy, pride and lust. She hiked alone through the endless olive groves of the Camino MozBrabe, from the legendary southern city of Granada toward the centuries-old pilgrim destination, Santiago de Compostela, in the far north-west of Spain. In dusty pueblos and epic landscapes, miracles found her. Angels in both name and nature eased her path. When faced with the untimely death of her husband, Peter, her ‘true north’, Ailsa returned to the Camino trail, this time in France, to walk through her sorrow. This second pilgrimage is the story of a walk where the burden is her own grief, not the sins of others, and which ultimately sees her walking into life and hope.
The Queen’s Vow: A Novel of Isabella of Castile
C W Gortner
No one believed I was destined for greatness. So begins Isabella’s story, in this evocative, vividly imagined novel about one of history’s most famous and controversial queens–the warrior who united a fractured country, the champion of the faith whose reign gave rise to the Inquisition, and the visionary who sent Columbus to discover a New World. Plunged into a deadly conflict to secure her crown, she is determined to wed the one man she loves yet who is forbidden to her–Fernando, prince of Aragon. As they unite their two realms under -one crown, one country, one faith, – Isabella and Fernando face an impoverished Spain beset by enemies. With the future of her throne at stake, Isabella resists the zealous demands of the inquisitor Torquemada even as she is seduced by the dreams of an enigmatic navigator named Columbus. But when the Moors of the southern domain of Granada declare war, a violent, treacherous battle against an ancient adversary erupts, one that will test all of Isabella’s resolve, her courage, and her tenacious belief in her destiny. The Queen’s Vow sweeps us into the tumultuous forging of a nation and the complex, fascinating heart of the woman who overcame all odds to become Isabella of Castile.
The 50 Greatest Walks of the World
Barry Stone
Barry Stone delves into some of the lesser-known aspects of the world’s most famous – and not-quite- famous-yet – trails. The perfect accompaniment to practical guidebooks, with walks that will appeal to everyone regardless of ability. The 50 Greatest Walks of the World includes British classics such as the Pennine Way, Offa’s Dyke Path, and the Old Man of Hoy as well as favourites such as The Camino, Italy’s Cinque Terre and the Isle of Skye’s Trotternish Ridge. Whether it’s a climb, a stroll, or a life-changing slog, this book has the walk for you.
