by Nina Epton
Epton covered a fair few kilometres and many months crossing the south of Spain from the northern border of Jaen through the rocky Despeñaperros pass to the southern coast of Malaga and from the east coast of Almeria to the west coast of Huelva. Her book, with a copyright date of 1968 was dedicated to Gerald Brenan, who lived and wrote about the are of the Alpujarras in Granada province and later about the Civil War. For me, parts of the book, the known areas, were interesting but as a whole she does drone on in a very dry and boring manner which made me put the book down very frequently! In all it took me five weeks to struggle through to the end and as it wasn't my own book I didn’t have to put it on the never read again pile. The reams of historical information were too staidly put to be taken as interesting and far too few in amongst many words too many! The book enjoyment factor was like its presentation – plain, hard-backed and black. Maybe that’s unfair and it originally came with a colourful dust jacket, but dull, black and boring I prefer – it sits well. The main plus point to the work is that as a research/historical document it may well become a valued tome in years to come. Little portions such as the Arab baths (Spain’s largest Islamic bath) in Jaen, Epton says “When I went to look for the Arab baths nobody knew or cared where they were…” Epton states “These baths, I suggest, should be cleared and opened to the public.” They had been used to store coal and in Epton’s day were full of old bedsteads (what a lovely old-fashioned term.) They are now restored and opened to the public.
The book had its moments which were unfortunately few and far between, as a historian I’m sure she’s done an excellent job, this book is definitely for history lovers and not for story or novel readers. I finished it, would read anything else by her as long as it came to me but I won’t be searching any of her other writings out, and I believe there are many.
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