The New Spaniards

Over 30 million foreigners travel to Spain every year - more than any other country, yet all but a handful see little of the country besides the holiday costas. This book describes the real Spain that has emerged since the death of Franco, a country of immense industrial and cultural creativity, of police trade unions and wife-swapping bars, a federal monarchy with a tax-paying king, a welfare state in which three-quarters of the unemployed do not qualify for assistance. Unlike many books on Spain, this book eschews politics to focus on the society and how it functions. The book won the Allen Lane Award.

John Hooper's experience as a foreign correspondent spans more than 25 years. He has lived in every major capital in western Europe - Paris, Madrid, Rome and Berlin - and speaks fluently all five major languages of western Europe. John Hooper is currently Rome correspondent for The Economist and the Guardian.