The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society

This is the 3rd book in the series from Chris Stewart about his life in Spain. Although it suffers from comparisons with the previous 2 books, taken in isolation it is still a great read. It is full of humour and is an entertaining read.

Possibly his best yet!! (3/7 people found this helpful)

Wonderfully written in Chris's relaxed style. His anecdotes are full of humor and bring all of his characters to life. I think this is possibly his best book yet. Can't wait for the next.

An old friend (19/20 people found this helpful)

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society contains more stories from Chris Stewart and his farm in the hills of the Sierra Nevada. This is a collection of stories rather than one story from start to finish. I don't think it is as laugh-out-loud funny as his second book (A Parrot in The Pepper Tree) but I don't think the books are sold for their comedy value. The stories are interesting, and include re-tracing the route of illegal immigrants from Morocco after a few stopped by his farm and another story follows his travels through Morocco to harvest a particular plant for one of his money raising schemes. I almost feel part of the family because the characters and scenery seem so familiar. I really hope Chris writes another instalment but I worry that he'll run out of genuine stories soon because his life these days probably revolves around meetings with publishers in London rather than living on a small farm in Spain.

Three's a crowd (18/21 people found this helpful)

Having really enjoyed the easy wit and charm of Chris Stewart's first two Alpujarran chronicles, I began the third with eager anticipation.

What a let down! This is perfectly readable, but feels like distinctly thin gruel - leftovers if you will. It is said that everybody has a book inside them - it seems that Christ Stewart was fortunate in having two, but is now floundering.

No doubt it will still sell well to fans of his previous work - but another dud like this and I expect his fan base will dwindle rapidly. Pity.

Endangered Canary (15/16 people found this helpful)

Readers of Chris Stewart's earlier titles can rightly expect to be rewarded in his latest volume with another charming, playfully self-deprecating account of everything he turns his hand to, and an empathetic appreciation of the people he runs into.

Once again, we are treated to a delightful but informative romp through matters that most of us know nothing about - from dung beetles, frogs, dogs, trees, sheep (and their droppings), to olives, Costa wine and the eponymous almond blossom. All this set in the now familiar landscape around El Valero, the family cortijo in the Alpujarras in Southern Spain, at the junction of the rivers Trevelez and Cadiar,

As before we can count on his wife, Ana, and daughter Chloe - now a teenager, to provide quizzical counterpoint to some of his escapades, and on a charming coterie of local characters who accompany him on them.

But times change, and global issues reach even Alpujarreñan backwaters. Semi-starved illegal immigrants from Morocco ghost past his door, and Stewart feeds them, tries to simulate their furtive trek up from the coast. He works as a volunteer in an Immigrant Help centre in Granada. A seed-gathering expedition to Morocco years before is lovingly related, but hopes of helping his Berber helpers to escape their poverty trap ultimately came to nothing.

Climate change arrives with a vengeance. Life in the Alpujarras - always precarious and ever subject to extreme highs and lows, both physical and emotional - suffers unprecedented cold and severe drought. Crops are ruined, trees freeze and sheep risk starvation. A smallholding couple invests a huge amount of money to build a 600,000 litre concrete water tank to protect their irrigation water supply and with it their chosen lifestyle - albeit one of "ferocious" hard work. It makes no economic sense.

But Stewart explains "we need to go on taking some active part in our landscape, ploughing its soil, planting its orchards, tending its trees. That is how we keep a sense of who we are."

A sense that may be doomed. The Alpujarreñan life-style is irremediably uneconomic and as vulnerable as canaries in a coal mine before the onslaught of climate change. Between the lines there is the distinct possibility that the almond blossom will not be there to appreciate much longer, and that Chris will have to redefine his sense of "who we are".

Does that make his books also an endangered species? Given Stewart's irrepressible enthusiasm and willingness to `have a go' -almost certainly not. But don't be surprised to find him doing his bit to save the planet and, with customary bonhomie, giving his take on the issues that concern us all. Swan song for the Alpujarras, maybe, but if this canary falls off its perch we all really are down the shaft.

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society

Chris Stewart

Reader Reviews:

Life in Spain in all its glory (0/0 people found this helpful)

Possibly his best yet!! (3/7 people found this helpful)

An old friend (19/20 people found this helpful)

Three's a crowd (18/21 people found this helpful)

Endangered Canary (15/16 people found this helpful)

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