LAURENCE MACKINreviews the latest travel books
Sacred Sierra
Jason Webster
Chatto Windus, £12.99
Jason Webster and his partner, Salud, buy a farmhouse on the side of a Spanish mountain, together with hectares of weed-choked rocky soil and some ailing olive trees. With help from a few locals and an ancient Moorish text on agriculture, they set about rebuilding the farm and discovering how to live off the Spanish earth in the face of a host of challenges: indifferent weather rips off their new roof; forest fires threaten to burn down the house; gun-toting locals invade their land in the hunt for wild boar; and Webster needs to ingratiate himself with shifty local truffle dealers. Webster is courageous enough to chase his dreams up this Spanish mountainside and generous enough to laugh at his shortcomings, and what emerges is a portrait of two people slowly falling in love with the land they are working and walking on. It is an endearing and intelligent book that also fires a few warning shots across the bows of overdevelopment, which is threatening this quintessentially Spanish way of rural life.
Morocco
Lonely Planet, £15.99
Webster’s book is flecked with exotic Moorish touches, which give something of flavour of the feast for the senses available in Morocco. This is one of the most exciting destinations within affordable reach of Ireland. Lonely Planet’s offering has plenty of the colour that Morocco is famous for, from the “centre of the earth” at Djemaa el-Fna to the majesty of the Atlas Mountains. It is a rich and complex country, and this guide goes to some lengths to get to grips with everything that’s on offer; a host of must-see lists and some strong, if long, itineraries should help you on your way.
lmackin@irishtimes.com