Robert Bovington's Travel Books

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Just some of the books on offer:-

SPANISH IMPRESSIONS (book) Print: £13.24 Robert Bovington is an Englishman living in Spain. He is so enthralled with his adopted country that it has inspired him to write about his experiences. From Almería in sun-kissed Andalucía to Zaragoza in historic Aragón, the author takes us on a tour of Spain. We visit the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Córdoba's Mezquita and the Cathedral at Santiago de Compostela. We explore Spain's diverse natural landscapes – the Picos de Europa, the Sierra Nevada and the vast plains of La Mancha. During our travels, we will encounter famous Spaniards – Isaac Albéniz, Pablo Picasso and many others. Football, fiestas and flamenco are experienced whilst food and drink, Spanish style, is on the menu. We will encounter Romanesque cathedrals, Gothic churches, Moorish castles, Modernist civil buildings and beautiful plazas. Throughout the journey, the keyword is diversity. It is this diversity that has inspired Robert Bovington to provide us with his "Spanish Impressions"

SPANISH MATTERS (e-book) eBook: £6.00 Bob and Diane have made the life-changing decision to retire to sunny Andalucía. Instead of lazing on the beach they explore the countryside of their adopted country. They visit 'pueblos blancos' in the Alpujarras. They enjoy the wonderful scenery of Andalusia. On one such journey to the medieval city of Ronda they discover the spectacular Sierra de las Nieves – a biosphere reserve. This type of encounter is to be repeated throughout their expeditions. They experience the stark beauty of the Tavernas desert; the enchanting Palmeral of Elche; the grandeur of the Sierra Nevada and the fantastically diverse landscapes of the Cabo de Gata with its unique flora and fauna. On their journeys they explore the culture and customs of the Andalucian people – tapas, fiestas, music, soccer, bad driving, noisy Spaniards. In short, Bob and Diane have fallen in love with their newly adopted country and are looking forward to visiting other areas of Spain and learning the language properly because Spanish matters!

SPANISH MATTERS (book) Print: £8.99 Bob and Diane have made the life-changing decision to retire to sunny Andalucía. Instead of lazing on the beach they explore the countryside of their adopted country. They visit 'pueblos blancos' in the Alpujarras. They enjoy the wonderful scenery of Andalusia. On one such journey to the medieval city of Ronda they discover the spectacular Sierra de las Nieves – a biosphere reserve. This type of encounter is to be repeated throughout their expeditions. They experience the stark beauty of the Tavernas desert; the enchanting Palmeral of Elche; the grandeur of the Sierra Nevada and the fantastically diverse landscapes of the Cabo de Gata with its unique flora and fauna. On their journeys they explore the culture and customs of the Andalucian people – tapas, fiestas, music, soccer, bad driving, noisy Spaniards. In short, Bob and Diane have fallen in love with their newly adopted country and are looking forward to visiting other areas of Spain and learning the language properly because Spanish matters!

Roquetas y la Costa de Almería (e-book) eBook: FREE El escritor Inglés, Robert Bovington, ofrece al lector una guía de Roquetas de Mar y sus alrededores.

A Long Hard Slog

Spanish Steps - Travels With My Donkey by Tim Moore
A Review by Robert Bovington

I found this book annoying, often tedious, occasionally interesting and very occasionally funny.

So why did I find the book annoying? Well to start with, various critics have described the author as humorous - inside the book cover, 'Image' described Tim as "Without a doubt, the funniest travel writer in the world"; the 'Irish Times' even hailed him as the new Bill Bryson. What rubbish! I find Bill Bryson so interesting and amusing that I have read all his travel books two or three times and even his other, more serious, works like "Mother Tongue" and "Shakespeare" are funnier and better written than Tim Moore's book about his long expedition with a donkey. Like his journey, I found the book a long hard slog.

I found his writing style extremely verbose, sometimes undecipherable and often plain irritating - okay, the word 'click' may be military slang for a kilometre but I found the copious use of the word irksome. I found his humour often grated - too many puns and too adolescent. I certainly didn't 'laugh out loud' but, to be fair, I did chuckle to myself on a couple of occasions. I didn't mind, either, some of his 'toilet' humour, though there were too many references to donkey poo for my liking. 

So what were the good points? Well, Tim Moore follows the travel writer's 'well worn path' by describing many of the places he visits and supplementing this with quite a bit of history. He does this quite well. He also manages to get across to the reader the sheer scale of the journey - the good bits and the bad. Blistered, sometimes sun-scorched, occasionally rain-soaked, the author does a credible job of describing his 750-kilometre trek across northern Spain accompanied by a donkey. 

I can applaud Tim Moore for completing the 'Compostela de Santiago' even if his ulterior motive was to provide material for a book. However, in my view, it is nowhere near the best travel book I have read. He may have walked the path of St. James but he is not yet fit to be mentioned in the same company as Washington Irving, Gerald Brenan, Ernest Hemingway or Chris Stewart - nor Bill Bryson. 

Castilian Days by John Hay

I enjoyed this book. Unlike many travel books about Spain, it was not all about cathedrals, churches and castles.

American John Milton Hay was more famous as a statesman than as an author – amongst other things he was the 37th Secretary of State. He had also performed the role of private secretary to Abraham Lincoln and one of his publications “Abraham Lincoln: A History” which he co-wrote with John G. Nicolay was published in 1890.

“Castilian Days” was first published in 1875, though my copy was the Holiday Edition of 1903, recently launched in Kindle e-book format by Project Gutenberg.

The book is a good balance between people and places. The first part of the book is dedicated to the habits and customs of the ordinary people of Castile in the late 19th century. This is followed by a vivid description of the bullfight – a bit too vivid for my liking. Hay describes all the gory details, which includes horses being gored to death – old horses that have been worked to (near) death in the intense heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter. So, if you are squeamish, miss that chapter.

The remainder of the book is less morbid. These final chapters are mostly about some of the “must see” sights of this area of Spain – Madrid’s Prado, Segovia, Toledo, the Escorial and Cervantes hometown of Alcalá de Henares.

The author does include some background history of the places he visits and provides the reader with a balanced account of these locations – sometimes with enthusiasm but with the occasional averse comment.

There is also a chapter about holidays and fiestas.

Unless I am mistaken, there is no mention of the year in which John Hay undertook his journey around Castile. It must have been between 1873 and 1874 because he writes of the country being a republic. Despite the fact that the book is set over a century ago, many of the descriptions applied to the Spanish people and places, in my mind, still hold true today.

Robert Bovington

Glories of Spain by Charles W. Wood

A Review by Robert Bovington

“Glories of Spain” was published in 1901 and describes the travels and adventures of Charles W. Wood and his friends, on a trip to Spain. 

Despite the book title, the party only visited the east of the country. Nevertheless it is a thoroughly enjoyable read. 

Charles W. Wood thoroughly describes the places he visits – Gerona, Barcelona, Montserrat, Manresa, Lerida, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Poblet, Tortosa and Valencia but, more than that he provides the reader with a thoroughly entertaining dialogue of the people he meets and their stories. And what an interesting bunch! They included former sweethearts Sister Rosalie and Father Anselmo who sacrificed their love for each other for a life in the Church and the hopeful reward of life together in Heaven; Ernesto and his mother; Salvador the Monk who preferred to live in a cave than the monastery at Montserrat and Monseigneur Delormais and his world-wide travels. Then there was the downtrodden night porter and his wife Rose aka the Dragon; Quasimodo and his beautiful music; blind Nerissa and her husband Alphonse; Loretta & her donkeys and more.

The author enthuses over many of the monuments he visits and provides the reader with detailed histories of some of the places.

Surprisingly, Charles W. Wood is not well known. Very little information was to be found about him when I researched using the Internet. His mother, however, was a famous author – Mrs Henry Wood wrote over thirty novels, the most famous being East Lynn.

Charles W. Wood did write other travel books including “Letters from Majorca” and "In the Valley of the Rhone. He should not be confused with another author of the same name – an American who wrote “The Passing of Normalcy”.

In summary, “Glories of Spain” is a delightful travelogue written by an Englishman in the late 1890s.

Robert Bovington

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Video of "Spanish Impressions"

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