Showing results for "Chris Stewart" in Travel Writing & Commentary

Meet Chris Stewart, the eternal optimist. A man who flies to Spain, sees a peasant farm on the wrong side of the river and, with scarcely a second thought, hands over a cash deposit. And then finds he has acquired not just the farm, but the farmer, too, who has no intention of leaving. Not to mention the lack of running water, electricity or even a bridge.

It's two decades since Chris Stewart moved to his farm on the wrong side of a river in southern Spain and his daughter Chlöe is preparing to leave for university. We find Chris, a local literary celebrity, using his fame to help his old sheep-shearing partner find work on a raucous road trip; cooking a TV lunch for visiting British chef, Rick Stein; and, most movingly, visiting famine-stricken Niger for Oxfam.

A Parrot in the Pepper Tree, the sequel to Lemons, follows the lives of Chris, Ana and their daughter, Chloë, as they get to grips with a misanthropic parrot who joins their home, Spanish school life, neighbours in love, their amazement at Chris appearing on the bestseller lists . . and their shock at discovering that their beloved valley is once more under threat of a dam.

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society finds Chris Stewart and his family still living on their farm, El Varo -- but life there never stands still. You will find yourself laughing out loud as Chris is instructed by his daughter on the way to treat dung beetles, bluffs his way as an art history guide to millionaire Bostonians, collects seeds in North Africa, and joins an Almond Blossom Appreciation Society. And you'll cringe as he tries his hand at office work in Granada.

In a series of madcap and hilarious adventures we follow Chris from a shaky start in Chichester harbour to his epic Odyssey to Spetses (a bucket would have been handy), and then on to the journey of a lifetime - battening down the hatches on a trip across the North Atlantic. It's a journey crackling with Chris's zest for life, irresistible humour, and unerring lack of foresight. Dry land never looked more welcoming.