Spain, Jan Morris, £7.99, Faber:For more than five decades Jan Morris has travelled the world and written of her experiences. This example, from 1964, is one of the finest books on the Spanish character.
Jan Morris
£7.99, Faber
For more than five decades Jan Morris has travelled the world and written of her experiences. This example, from 1964, is one of the finest books on the Spanish character. It is not a guide book but a deft and fluent evocation of the country and its people. Morris leads us through mountain hamlets and the blazing throngs of cities, from the savage magic of the corrida, or bull fight, with its tragic sense of inevitability, to the hallowed paths that lead to Santiago de Compostela, a town immortalised by its association with
St James, a man who scholars agree never came to Spain.
This is a colourful, vivid book that paints in dazzling strokes the essence of the country and the culture; its drama, passion and highly strung nature; its arrogance and elegance; and its simmering sense of importance and independence. The book has lost none of its relevance and effectiveness, something elegantly captured in Morris's new introduction.
Rough Guide Directions: Mallorca
Phil Lee
Rough Guides, £6.99
Much like its neighbouring island of Ibiza, Majorca is somewhat maligned by its image as a cheap-and-cheerful package destination. It has plenty to offer beyond sun, sand and cheap hotels: dramatic monasteries, Moorish strongholds, natural parks, rugged mountainscapes and spectacular coastline.
The first chunk of this book is a whistle-stop guide to restaurants, festivals, modern art and the like, followed by the guide proper. It is a solid place to start if you want to avoid the "high-rise hotels, thumping nightlife [and the] youthful and very British crowd".