Chris Stewart est célèbre pour ses récits perspicaces et souvent humoristiques sur sa vie dans sa ferme du sud de l'Espagne. Son écriture explore les défis et les charmes de la vie rurale andalouse, révélant un œil observateur aiguisé pour le monde naturel et le caractère humain. À travers ses mémoires, Stewart invite les lecteurs dans sa vie choisie, racontant sa transition de musicien à agriculteur avec chaleur et esprit, et offrant un portrait vibrant de sa patrie adoptive.
Set against a backdrop of high-stakes technology and military intrigue, this techno-thriller showcases the expertise of Chris Stewart, a decorated former Air Force pilot and Congressman. The narrative promises a gripping exploration of modern warfare and the implications of advanced technology, blending action and political drama to create a compelling story that reflects real-world issues. Expect a fast-paced plot filled with tension and thrilling twists that keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Chris Stewart'sDRIVING OVER LEMONS told the story of his move to a remote mountain farm in Las Alpujarras - an oddball region of Spain, south of Granada. Funny, insightful and real, the book became an international bestseller.A PARROT IN A PEPPER TREE, the sequel to Lemons, follows the lives of Chris, Ana and their daughter, Chloë, as they get to grips with a misanthropic parrot who joins their home, Spanish school life, neighbours in love, their amazement at Chris appearing on the bestseller lists . . and their shock at discovering that their beloved valley is once more under threat of a dam.A Parrot in the Pepper Tree also looks back on Chris Stewart's former life - the hard times shearing in midwinter Sweden (and driving across the frozen sea to reach island farms); his first taste of Spain, learning flamenco guitar as a 20-year old; and his illustrious music career, drumming for his schl band Genesis (sacked at 17, he never quite became Phil Collins), and then for a circus.
It's two decades since Chris Stewart moved to his farm on the wrong side of a river in the mountains of southern Spain and his daughter Chloe is preparing to fly the nest for university. In this latest, typically hilarious dispatch from El Valero we find Chris, now a local literary celebrity, using his fame to help his old sheep-shearing partner find work on a raucous road trip; cooking a TV lunch for visiting British chef, Rick Stein; discovering the pitfalls of Spanish public speaking; and, most movingly, visiting famine-stricken Niger for Oxfam. Yet it's at El Valero, his beloved sheep farm, that Chris remains in his element as he, his wife Ana and their assorted dogs, cats and sheep weather a near calamitous flood and emerge as newly certified organic farmers. His cash crop? The lemons and oranges he once so blithely drove over, of course.
Chris, eternal optimist and itinerant sheep shearer, moves with his wife Ana to a mountain farm in Las Alpujarras, an oddball region in south of Spain. Misadventures gleefully unfold as Chris discovers that the owner has no intention of leaving and meets their neighbours, an engaging mix of peasant farmers and shepherds, travellers and ex-pats.
If you're wondering what Chris Stewart did before he and Ana moved to El Valero, their Spanish farm, here's one of the answers. He took to the sea, landing a job as skipper for the summer, sailing on a Cornish Crabber around the Greek islands. It was his dream job; but there was only one tiny problem. He had never sailed before!
Chris Stewart had a long and eclectic list of jobs. From some of the most glamorous careers - he was original drummer in Genesis - to the more offbeat - a sheep shearer and circus performer - he had done it all...or almost all. So when he is offered the chance to captain a sailboat in the Greek islands one summer, something he had never done before, he jumps at the chance. Ever the optimist, Stewart is undaunted by the fact that he'd never actually sailed before! So begins the hilarious and wild adventures of Three Ways to Capsize a Boat. From setting the boat on fire not once, but several times in the Aegean Sea to his not-so-grand arrival in Spetses to meet the owners of the boat (who says it isn't graceful to plow into the docks as a means of coming to a stop?), Stewart quickly catches the sailing bug. By the end of the summer, as he is facing the dreary prospect of going back to sheep shearing, he jumps at the chance to be part of a crew to follow Viking Leif Eiriksson's historic journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Five months on a small sailboat with seven other people in the freezing waters of the Atlantic would sound like punishment to most people, but not Stewart! He takes it all in stride and always with his unfailing optimism and good spirits. From coming to terms with the long, cold nights at sea and unchanging cuisine to battling intense seasickness and managing to go to the bathroom during a massive storm (a lot harder than you'd think!), Stewart keeps his good humor...but learns, in the end, that perhaps the best things in life are worth coming ashore for. Three Ways to Capsize a Boat is travel writing at its best, crackling with Chris Stewart's zest for life, irresistible humor, and unerring lack of foresight. Dry land never looked more welcoming!
