Driving Over Lemons

Driving Over Lemons is that rare thing: a funny, insightful book that charms you from the first page to the last... and one that makes sinking your life savings into an old Spanish mountain farm, on the wrong side of the river, with no access road, water supply or electricity, seem like a perfectly reasonable career move.

Chris Stewart, the eternal optimist, transports us to Las Alpujarras, an oddball region south of Granada, and into a series of misadventures with an engaging mix of farmersand shepherds, New Age travellers and ex-pats. The hero of the piece, however, is their farm, El Valero, a bright patch of mountain studded with olive, almond and lemon groves, nestled above an intersection of two rivers. What better place to set up home with their menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens, doves and a flock of wayward sheep or, indeed, to bring up their daughter Chloé?

This anniversary edition of Driving Over Lemons includes a NEW CHAPTER in which we rejoin Chris and Ana, still thriving at El Valero, 25 years on.