What do you think?
Rate this book
In Spain
London. 1987. Secker and Warburg. 23x16. 284p.
280 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 1987
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 26, 2013
This is memoir by my late mentor, Ted Walker, of his years living in Spain (thus the title) is one of my favorite books of all time, and nearly no one in America has read it. You really, really should. The writing is vivid, and it's emotional without ever losing its gravitas, showing a writer at the top of his craft.
April 6, 2021
I came across this author and book rather randomly. Ted Walker was an English poet (born 1934, died 2004) and I heard some of his poems about the Sussex countryside on BBC Radio 4 Extra's Poetry Extra. I decided I'd like to read his work and found his books are out of print. However I managed to get a secondhand copy of In Spain although I've not been able to find any of his poetry books
Ted Walker had studied Spanish at school and at Cambridge and had taught Spanish for a few years too but hadn't been able to travel widely around the country. In the 1980s he was awarded a travel bursary and set off for Cuenca to write. The book evokes a Spain of the time, emerging from Franco's long dictatorship. His writing really stirred up my memories of spending a year in Albacete (which gets a whole chapter, not something most travel books about Spain would do!) and then visiting regularly in the 1980s. His writing is beautiful and he conjures up very vivid descriptions of the people, places and very importantly the food and drink. His affinity with Spain really speaks to me and I class this book up there with Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and Gerald Brenan's South From Granada.
While I've given it 5 stars I feel that he has been rather unkind (perhaps a characteristic of his generation) about certain groups of people, namely older women, the Gallegos and the Basques). However for the most part his love and admiration for Spain and its people shine through in his poetic prose.
Ted Walker had studied Spanish at school and at Cambridge and had taught Spanish for a few years too but hadn't been able to travel widely around the country. In the 1980s he was awarded a travel bursary and set off for Cuenca to write. The book evokes a Spain of the time, emerging from Franco's long dictatorship. His writing really stirred up my memories of spending a year in Albacete (which gets a whole chapter, not something most travel books about Spain would do!) and then visiting regularly in the 1980s. His writing is beautiful and he conjures up very vivid descriptions of the people, places and very importantly the food and drink. His affinity with Spain really speaks to me and I class this book up there with Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and Gerald Brenan's South From Granada.
While I've given it 5 stars I feel that he has been rather unkind (perhaps a characteristic of his generation) about certain groups of people, namely older women, the Gallegos and the Basques). However for the most part his love and admiration for Spain and its people shine through in his poetic prose.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews