Spanish Journeys – A Portrait of Spain –

“Seasoned travel writer Adam Hopkins has been an informed and admiring observer of Spain for over thirty years. To write this superb book, he set out once again to explore every corner of the country.

In a series of evocative journeys, he celebrates the glories of the caliphate in Córdoba, reconstructs the slow stages of the Christian Reconquest, treads the street s of nineteenth-century Barcelona and Madrid, and samples the bawdy high spirits of the Costas. Crisp and colourful descriptions of cities like Toledo, Granada, Salamanca and Seville assess their art, architecture and sharply differing personalities.
Turning to current issues, Hopkins retraces the ever-shifting frontiers of the Civil War, interviews some staunch survivors, chronicles the dark night of dictatorship and the new democracy’s struggles with mass tourism and Basque separatism. Written with love, delight and occasional exasperation, this is a vivid and highly personal portrait of one of Europe’s most fascinating nations.”