TITLE: GHOSTS OF SPAIN – TRAVELS THROUGH A COUNTRY’S HIDDEN PAST

AUTHOR: Giles Tremlett

DATE PUBLISHED: 2006

DATE READ: July 2008

NOTES: An in-depth and thoroughly researched examination of this intriguing country. This is an extremely readable account of the history, the people, the languages and the culture that have gone into the making of the Spain of today. Although from the title this looks like a travel book it is far more than that. Giles Tremlett devotes a large part of the book (and rightly so) to the Civil War and its aftermath and how the Spanish have adopted a “pact of forgetting”. But other chapters are equally interesting and informative (such as ETA and Basque separatism, the Catalan language, Galician culture) The chapter on Islamist terrorism and Aznar’s response reads like a thriller……

This is an affectionate look at Spain but he doesn’t pull any punches or save us from the seamier side of political corruption or the rise of a criminal gangs.

Highly recommended.