This is not a book about trains but about the variety of Spain. The bestselling author Christopher Howse makes ten great railway journeys that explore the interior of the peninsula, its astonishing landscapes and ancient buildings. The focus is the way the Spanish live now: their habits, streets, characters, stories – and quite a bit about their eating and drinking.Christopher Howse has been travelling around Spain for 25 years, and has now made a 3,000 mile circumnavigation by train from the top of the Pyrenees – through the vulture-haunted wilds of Extremadura and the Spaghetti Western deserts of the south, to the ancient hilltop city of Cuenca and beyond. On the way he meets troglodytes, visits a city ruined by an earthquake, runs into a dancing lion, stumbles across a body-snatching plot and tries out a recipe for acorn pie. An entertaining exploration of a much-loved country, The Train in Spain gives a fascinating and entirely original portrait of a strange land at a time of great change.
Editorial Reviews
Review
On his 3,000 mile trip around Spain, [Christopher Howse] is less benevolent than Michael Palin and, much more interestingly, a blend of two great travel writers, the magisterial literary flâneur Norman Douglas and the romantically nostalgic Norman Lewis — Iain Finlayson ― The Times
Christopher Howse has a good eye for detail… [and] a wealth of historical, etymological (every place name is explained) and statistical information at his fingertips… This book is an interesting read for anyone who loves Spain. — Fiona Pitt-Kethley ―
The Oldie
This is a book by a man who both understands and loves Spain, the way time expands there, so that, as Gerald Brenan once said, an hour in Spain can seem like a week in another country. It is worth buying alone for the descriptions of hearty traditional dishes, more valuable than all the arcane inventions of Ferrán Adriá…This is a small classic, worth its place on the shelf alongside the works of the other great eccentric British hispanophiles, Richard Ford, George Borrow and Gerald Brenan. — Harry Eyres ―
The Spectator Published On: 2013-11-02
His description of scenes Spanish will often have his readers smiling, and sometimes laughing aloud. His book is essential reading for those following him to those parts, whether they risk doing so by train or not. — Peter Linehan ―
The Tablet
Christopher Howse, in his offbeat book The Train in Spain, prefers slow trains, and particularly those that meander along single tracks in obscure parts of the country. — William Chislett ―
Times Literary Supplement
We come to love his quiet and self-effacing personal honesty, the unhurried pace, the acutely observant eye, the dry non-judgmental humour and the opening up of obscure alleyways of knowledge — Barnaby Rogerson ―
Daily Telegraph
His has been an illuminating odyssey through a country he obviously loves. He rekindles the desire to visit Spain and provides a charmingly erudite companion for the journey. — Simon Scott Plummer ―
Standpoint
Book Description
The variety of Spain in ten great railway journeys exploring the extremities and interior of the peninsula and the way the Spanish live now
About the Author
Christopher Howse is a writer for the Daily Telegraph, writing about the world’s faiths. He also blogs about the English language and is a regular contributor to The Spectator and The Tablet. He is the author of A Pilgrim in Spain (2011), The Train in Spain (2013) and Soho in the Eighties (2018), all published by Bloomsbury Continuum.
Among his other bestselling books for Continuum are Prayers for This Life (2005) and The Assurance of Hope (2006). He is the author of How We Saw It: 150 years of The Daily Telegraph (2004).
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