Undeterred by remote and almost savage country, a primitive peasant population and inns evidently medieval in their crudity, Penelope Chetwode's sole companion on her ride over the disused mule tracks and goat paths in the wilds of Andalusia was the 12-year-old bay mare, La Marquesa. This story of their adventure together offers a vivid picture of life in rural Andalusia.

Undeterred by remote and almost savage country, a primitive peasant population and inns evidently medieval in their crudity, Penelope Chetwode rode in the wilds of Andalusia, her sole companion a 12-year-old bay mare, La Marquesa.

Nearly sixty years after Penelope Chetwode, wife of Poet Laureate John Betjeman, ventured into rural Spain on a borrowed mare, Karen Considine follows on horseback in her hoof-prints. Her guide and companion is Penelope’s book, ‘Two Middle-Aged Ladies in Andalusia’. Among the many changes, she finds the enduring spirit of the Andalusian people unaltered. Karen says, “I have been ‘exploring’ since I was around four-years-old, on foot and on horseback, always wanting to see what was hidden around the next corner and then ‘making maps’. My mother gave me Penelope Chetwode’s book when I was fifteen and I never forgot my determination to follow her ride one day. That day finally came when I retired, and I was off after her within the year.” “Beautifully written and truly captures daily Andalusian life.” Richard Dunwoody MBE, Retired steeplechase jockey

In the tradition of Laura Esquivel's Like Water For Chocolate, The House of Impossible Loves is a novel set in twentieth-century Spain and France revolving around a family of cursed women.

Declared “a writer to watch” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), New York Times bestselling author María Dueñas pours heart and soul into this story of a woman who discovers the power of second chances. A talented college professor in Madrid, Blanca Perea seems to have it all. But her world is suddenly shattered when her husband of twenty years leaves her for another woman. Questioning the life she once had and whether she truly knows herself, Blanca resolves to change her surroundings. She accepts what looks like a boring research grant in California involving an exiled Spanish writer who died decades ago. Anxious to leave her own troubled life behind, she is gradually drawn into his haunted world, with its poignant loves and unfulfilled ambitions. But in delving into the past, Blanca finds herself simultaneously awakened to the present by Daniel Carter, a charismatic professor with crucial knowledge about the dead writer that he has never before revealed. Amid this web of passion, conflict, and hidden feelings, including her own, Blanca advances like an avid detective, refusing to quit, and ultimately discovers startling answers that resonate deeply in her own life. Evocative, lyrical, and humorous, The Heart Has Its Reasons is a journey of the soul from the pangs of the past to the vibrant present. It is a story about the thrill of creating one’s life anew.

Andalucia is the quintessence of Spain and yet, historically and culturally, it is surprisingly unlike the rest of the country. Its literary history began to develop with the Romans and reached an early flowering when Arabic poets drew on centuries of literary tradition, together with the landscapes and passions of Moorish Spain. Later, Prosper Mérimée, Byron and Washington Irving forged legends of exotic southern Spain that persist to this day and Spanish writers themselves captured the rich tapestry of Andalucian culture, from Cervantes' Seville to the Córdoba of Baroque poet Luis de Góngora and Lorca's 'hidden Andalucia'. With the advent of the Civil War, a new generation flocked to Andalucia and were inspired to write some of the twentieth century's most iconic works of literature, from Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls to Gerald Brenan's The Spanish Labyrinth and Laurie Lee's trilogy of books. As vibrant and compelling as the region itself, Andalucia: A Literary Guide for Travellers illuminates the very soul of Spain.