thanks la historiadora.
i have bad history with amazon and recently El corte ingles could not find my address in France with DHL!!! waited 21 days and the cd came in badly damage. I am sticking with FNAC.com or Alapage.com

will have to wait for it come out there. thanks anyway.

Thanks for the comments here about my book, A LOAD OF BULL. Glad you enjoyed it - and thanks for recommending it. A new paperback edition is out on 4th May (available for pre-order at the UK Amazon site!) ...

Another good book that I assign in my Modern Spain history course is John Hooper's THE NEW SPANIARDS (Penguin). It's a good journalistic account of Spain after the death of Franco.

RE: Books about Spain.

I'm in the middle of H.V. Morton's "A Stranger In Spain. While this book was written in the 1950's, many of it's observations are brilliant. Certainly they are scene through an Englishman's lense but Morton is so thorough without being tedius that he remains one of the great travel writers of the past century. Worth a look for the links that Morton shows between Spain and the world, particularly England.

El Almirante

I finally started reading A Load of Bull by Tim Parfitt last night - huge mistake! I was laughing so hard that sleep was not about to happen. The first few chapters (at which point I finally forced myself to close the book and get a bit of sleep before coming to work) are brilliantly hysterical. Anyone who remembers the Spain of 10+ years ago will laugh until you hurt!

For those that don't go that far back - Parfitt will let you see Madrid - and all that goes into why we have this ongoing love affair with the country - from a delightful perspective.

Can't wait to get out of here and back to the book.

Well done!

I just finished reading "Ghosts of Spain" a few days ago and I really enjoyed it. I often read Spanish news online, but without a lot of previous knowledge of recent Spanish history it's hard to understand the "big picture." I thought the book was very well written and it clarified many issues about Spanish politics for me.

Yeah I think "Ghosts of Spain" is an excellent book ! Giles Tremett worked for The Guardian newspaper in the UK ( well respected ) and I believe he lives quite near me here in Madrid ( Barrio Salamanca ) .
I found the book very readable . His observations are spot-on and I liked that he presents Spanish modern history in a very digestable way .
The book is also pretty shocking in parts too .
Recommended for sure .
Steve .

I didn't enjoy Ghosts of Spain as much as I thought I would. Found Tremett a bit judgemental for a journalist. But, just one opinion.

admiral44, I thought it was really good because it gave a good overview of Spanish politics that I didn't know about, but I too was a bit thrown off by just the overall negative tone. It was often hard to find a bright side in the book. I'd still recommend it, though.

I am resurrecting this 2 year old thread to ask if any of you all have read "The New Spaniards"? I am enjoying it and would love to discuss it with anyone who recalls it. I am looking forward to checking out some of the other recommended books on this thread.