South from Granada

Part autobiography, part travelogue, and wholly a tribute to the unspoilt beauty of southern Spain, Gerald Brenan'sSouth from Granadaincludes an introduction by Chris Stewart, author of the bestsellingDriving Over Lemons, in Penguin Modern Classics.

Between 1920 and 1934, Gerald Brenan lived in the remote Spanish village of Yegen andSouth of Granadadepicts his time there, vividly evoking the essence of his rural surroundings and the Spanish way of life before the Civil War. Here he portrays the landscapes, festivals and folk-lore of the Sierra Nevada, the rivalries, romances and courtship rituals, village customs, superstitions and characters. Fascinating details emerge, from cheap brothels to archaeological remains, along with visits from Brenan's friends from the Bloomsbury group - Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf among them. Knowledgeable, elegant and sympathetic, this is a rich account of Spain's vanished past.

Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) was an English writer who spent much of his life in Spain. He is best known forThe Spanish Labyrinth, a work of history on the background to the Spanish Civil War and forSouth From Granada: Seven Years in an Andalusian Village. He was awarded a CBE in 1982, and was much honoured in Spain

If you enjoyedSouth from Granada, you might like Orwell'sHomage to Catalonia,also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

'The best of Brenan's books: he has a true and proper knowledge of the culture he describes'
Cyril Connolly,Sunday Times

'A brilliant interpreter of Spain to the rest of the world'
The Times