Tag Archives: Spain

In My Hands Today…

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Outlandish: Walking Europe’s Unlikely Landscapes – Nick Hunt

In Outlandish, acclaimed travel writer Nick Hunt takes us across landscapes that should not be there, wildernesses found in Europe yet seemingly belonging to far-off a patch of Arctic tundra in Scotland; the continent’s largest surviving remnant of primeval
forest in Poland and Belarus; Europe’s only true desert in Spain; and the fathomless grassland steppes of Hungary.

From snow-capped mountain range to dense green forest, desert ravines to threadbare, yellow open grassland, these anomalies transport us to faraway regions of the world.

More like pockets of Africa, Asia, the Poles or North America, they make our own continent seem larger, stranger and more filled with secrets.

Against the rapid climate breakdown of deserts, steppes and primeval jungles across the
world, this book discovers the outlandish environments so much closer to home – along
with their abundant reindeer; bison; ibex; wolves and herds of wild horses.

Blending sublime travel writing, nature writing and history – by way of Paleolithic cave art,
reindeer nomads, desert wanderers, shamans, Slavic forest gods, European bison, Wild
West fantasists, eco-activists, horseback archers, Big Grey Men and other unlikely spirits
of place – these desolate and rich environments show us that the strange has always been
near.

In My Hands Today…

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Moorish Spain – Richard Fletcher

Beginning in the year 711 and continuing for nearly a thousand years, the Islamic presence survived in Spain, at times flourishing, and at other times dwindling into warring fiefdoms.

But the culture and science thereby brought to Spain, including long-buried knowledge from Greece, largely forgotten during Europe’s Dark Ages, was to have an enduring impact on the country as it emerged into the modern era.

In this gracefully written history, Richard Fletcher reveals the Moorish culture in all its fascinating disparity and gives us history at its best: here is vivid storytelling by a renowned scholar.

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Isabella of Castile: Europe’s First Great Queen – Giles Tremlett

In 1474, when Castile was the largest, strongest, and most populous kingdom in Hispania (present day Spain and Portugal), a twenty-three-year-old woman named Isabella ascended the throne. At a time when successful queens regnant were few and far between, Isabella faced not only the considerable challenge of being a young, female ruler in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world, but also of reforming a major European kingdom riddled with crime, debt, corruption, and religious factionism. Her marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon united two kingdoms, a royal partnership in which Isabella more than held her own. Their pivotal reign was long and transformative, uniting Spain and setting the stage for its golden era of global dominance.

Acclaimed historian Giles Tremlett chronicles the life of Isabella of Castile as she led her country out of the murky Middle Ages and harnessed the newest ideas and tools of the early Renaissance to turn her ill-disciplined, quarrelsome nation into a sharper, truly modern state with a powerful, clear-minded, and ambitious monarch at its center. With authority and insight he relates the story of this legendary, if controversial, first initiate in a small club of great European queens that includes Elizabeth I of England, Russia’s Catherine the Great, and Britain’s Queen Victoria.

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Remedy For Treason – Caroline Roe

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Girona, Spain. 1353. Struggling to save his patients from the plague, and avoiding the even greater danger of his wife’s temper, Isaac discovers that pestilence isn’t the city’s only killer.

A nun dies in the public baths. Then it is revealed that she is not a nun at all, but an attendant to the queen in nun’s disguise.

The Bishop of Girona calls upon Isaac to help determine the strange circumstance of her death–and the purpose of her deception. But Isaac soon finds himself and his family caught in a tightening web of royal intrigue designed to destroy the Spanish monarchy–and whoever else gets in the way…

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The Exchange of Princesses – Chantal Thomas

23196972Philippe d’Orléans, the regent of France, has a gangrenous heart–the result of a life of debauchery, alcohol, power, and flattery. One morning in 1721, he has a brilliant idea to further appease his thirst for power: he decides to marry eleven-year-old Louis the XV to the daughter of Philippe V of Spain, who is only four. This, Orléans hopes, will tie his kingdom to Spain’s. But it could also have a more duplicitous effect: were Louis XV to die without begetting an heir–the likeliness of which is greatly increased by having a child—Orléans himself would finally be king. In exchange, Orléans tosses his own daughter into the bargain, the 12-year-old Mlle de Montpensier, who will marry the Prince of Asturias, the inheritor of the Spanish throne.

The Spanish court enthusiastically agrees and arrangements are quickly made. The two nations trade their princesses in a grand ceremony in 1722, making bonds that should end the historical conflict between them. Of course, nothing turns out as expected. In a novel that reads like a fairy tale, Chantal Thomas chronicles a time in French history when children were not children, but pawns in an adult’s game.