Fabled Shore: From the Pyrenées to Portugal (Oxford Paperbacks) - Softcover

Macaulay, Rose, Dame

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192814834 ISBN 13: 9780192814838

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1987

Synopsis

Rose Macaulay traveled down the Catalonian, Valencian, Andalusian, and Algrave coast in the 1940s, just after the Spanish Civil War, when the roads were still pitted with shell holes and the victors were rebuilding their war-torn churches. Fabled Shore, her fascinating account of this trip, has become one of the classics in travel writing.

Steeped in Spanish history, and filled with stories of her meetings with children, fishermen, and the still-active anti-Francoists, it describes the coast of Spain before the tourists of sun-starved Northern Europe invaded, turning it into a commercial center. Benidorm was then a fishing village frequented by smugglers; Torremolinos, a small town boasting but a single hotel. Versed Spanish history and architecture, Macaulay (who attracted enormous attention, traveling as an unaccompanied woman in a car) has left a marvelous picture of Spain as it was and, in some ways, still is.

"Rewarding for those who know and love Spain or for those who hope to do so someday."--Christian Science Monitor
·"A book of extraordinary charm."--The Nation

About the Author:

The late Rose Macaulay was a well-known novelist and travel writer. They Were Defeated, another of her books, was recently reissued by Oxford University Press.

Raymond Carr, also a well-known travel writer, is Warden of St. Anthony's College, Oxford.

One of the classics of travel writing, describing the untraveled coast of Spain just after the Civil War

About this title

About the Author:

Emilie Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) was born in Rugby, Warwickshire but spent her early childhood in Italy. She was educated at Oxford High School for Girls and Somerville College, Oxford, where she read Modern History. She wrote her first novel, Abbots Verney, in 1906, while living in Great Shelford, near Cambridge. Rose became an ardent Anglo-Catholic and, through her great childhood friendship with Rupert Brooks, was introduced to London literary society. After moving to London, in 1914 published her first book of poetry, The Two Blind Countries. In 1918 she met the novelist and former Catholic priest Gerald O'Donovan, the married man with whom she was to have an affair lasting until his death. Her final and most famous novel, The Towers of Trebizond (1956), was awarded a James Tait Black Memorial Prize and became a bestseller in America. Rose Macaulay was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1958, but seven months later suffered a heart attack and died at her home.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0192814834
• ISBN 13: 9780192814838
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250