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BOOKS TO WHILE AWAY THE HOURS DAY 2

24/3/2020

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My choice today is THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS by Robert Dodds, and is for lovers of historical fiction.
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"A gripping and absorbing read" HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

​It is 1490. Northern Europe is in the grip of sweeping plagues and religious inquisitions, and in daily terror of the Day of Judgement. In the town of Den Bosch, the artist Jerome (Hieronymus Bosch) paints his visionary denunciation of sin and folly, ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’, while his neglected wife Aleyt strays into sin herself. But Jerome is not immune from the world he portrays. A rival artist and a corrupt Abbess concoct a hellish plot that threatens to destroy him.

Here is my Amazon review:

What a gripping book. I'm not a great fan of Hieronymous Bosch's paintings, skilled though they are—too may demons and visions of hell—so was not sure if I would enjoy a novel based on his life. However the characterisation of the protagonists, especially Bosch and his wife was so true to life that I couldn't put the book down. I just had to know what happened to them. Dodds describes life in the small town where Bosch lives in great detail, showing his extensive research into the period and the course of the Inquisition in the Netherlands. But it's the human side of the story, with all its strengths and failings that brings it to life. His 'bad guys' are truly bad, but we still see a glimpse of why they are what they are. No stereotypes here.
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CHOOSING A BOOK TO WHILE AWAY THE HOURS day 1

24/3/2020

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While we are all in our own way trying to survive the coronavirus I thought that each day I would share with you one of my favourite books. You will soon realise that if I find an author I like, then I try to read all of their books. My first selection is a Scottish author and poet, Andrew Greig, and the book is, "In Another Light."
A young man leans over the railings of the ocean liner bound for the exotic shores of Penang. It is early in the 1930s and Dr Alexander Mackay is on his way to take up his post running a maternity hospital in the colony. During the voyage he meets two beautiful sisters and the seeds of a scandal are sown.

Seventy years later Edward Mackay wakes after a major brain trauma. In the hazy shadowlands of illness, he conjures the figure of his dead father, a man he knew so little about. This near-death experience provokes a move to the wilds of Orkney, where Edward joins a project to harness the tides around the island as a renewable source of energy. But in the tight-knit island community passions also run high. ​

These were my thoughts on it after I had read it:

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What a magnificent book - I never wanted it to end. Greig has such a delightful way with language, whether local Scots or English. He is also a poet and this is very evident in his lyrical prose. In Another Light is the moving story of two men - father and son. The son, recently recovering from a near-death illness becomes obsessed with learning more about his father's life before he met his mother. The novel is set partly in Penang, where the father served as a medical officer, and partly in Orkney, where the son is working on a renewable energy project. The story of the father twists and turns and at times runs parallel to the son's life until it all comes together in the last few pages. It is a fast moving plot and the mystery surrounding his father is revealed clue by clue, with a final twist to the mystery right at the end.

Available on Amazon as ebook and in paperback.
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International Women´s Day 2020

6/3/2020

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​International Women's Day, whose theme this year is “I Am Generation Equality: Realising Women’s Rights,” is celebrated on the 8th March. It was first organised in 1909 in New York by the Socialist Party of America to draw attention to women’s rights, and to bolster the demand for women’s suffrage. For years the day was associated with Socialist and Communist movements; in 1936, on the eve of the Spanish Civil War, Dolores Ibárruri, a leading member of the Spanish Communist Party, headed a commemorative march through Madrid. Then in the 1960s the feminist movement adopted the day as their own, and later in the 70s and 80s, it grew in popularity as more and more women called for equal rights, equality of pay and protection against domestic violence.
Now International Women’s Day is celebrated across the world; in some countries it is a day of celebration, and in others a day of protest; in 2007 a women’s rally in Iran was broken up by police and many people were arrested. In Spain, on International Women’s Day last year, hundreds of women went on strike, either staying away from work or abandoning their normal domestic duties, leaving their husbands to care for the children or the elderly.
Although the situation of equality for women varies greatly from country to country, here in western Europe women have achieved much of what they wanted, especially in Spain. Spanish women have come a long way since the death of Franco, but sometimes it is good to look at the past and see just how far that is.  
When I first moved to Spain, I decided to write a book about the lives of women under the dictatorship. I called it Daughters of Spain.
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Before the Spanish Civil War, women had gained many rights: they had the vote, and were given full legal status within the state. They could have their own bank account,  adultery was no longer a crime and abortion was legalised.  Women were allowed free access to the labour market, some limited maternity leave, and the length of the working day was reduced to eight hours, leaving women with more time to work in the home. All that changed when Franco came to power and I found it heart rending to listen to some of the things the women whom I interviewed told me. Like, “J” who was not allowed to have her name put on her baby’s birth certificate because she was unmarried, and subsequently had no rights whatsoever regarding her own child. And “L,” whose husband kept her virtually a prisoner for forty years, without friends and family. Or “MJ” who was divorced, and concluded our interview with the words: ‘Am I happy?  Yes, I’m happy with what I’ve done, but truly happy?  I don’t know.  At least now I make the decisions; first it was my father making decisions for me, then my boyfriend, then my husband; now I make the decisions.’

Will this Sunday be a day of protest or celebration? One of the main issues for women throughout the world is domestic violence. In Spain last September women came out in protest over a summer of violence where 19 women were killed by a husband or partner. By the end of 2019 there had been 55 fatalities. Already this year thirteen women have been killed by their partners or husbands. And that is despite the law against domestic violence that was passed in 2004. 
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And Spain is not the only country in Europe. In fact it is well down the league table of these horrific crimes, below the UK, France and Germany. 
Whatever you do to celebrate International Women’s Day, whether you are 65+ or a teenager, remember that here in Europe, women have a voice. Maybe women haven’t achieved all that they would like, but at least they are going in the right direction and that’s something to celebrate.​

By the way, did you know that there’s an International Men’s Day as well? It’s on 19th November. Can’t say I'd heard about it before, but it's focus is on men's and boy's health, improving gender relations, promoting gender equality, and highlighting positive male role models. Sounds good.
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Interview with Melissa Addey

20/2/2020

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Melissa Addey is an author, speaker and mother of two.  I am particularly pleased to have her here today, on my blog, because her passions are so similar to my own. Thank you Melissa, for finding the time in your very busy life to talk to me today.
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​Q. Tell us a bit about yourself, Melissa. When did you realise that you wanted to be a writer?
I read a huge amount as a child and learnt to read very fast, so I got through books at a terrific rate. I used to write a little bit as a child and teenager, then began to write more once I was in my twenties and thirties. But it took me until I was forty to go full time as an author and start publishing. I’m just about to finish a PhD in Creative Writing which I’ve done over the past three years which has been a lot of fun and (I hope) also improved my craft. It’s a huge joy to write for a living.


Q. Many of your books are set in historical periods. I know from experience how important it is to get the history right, and that means a lot of research. What attracted you to historical fiction?
I think in the past there were more restrictions on behaviour and more sudden turns of fortune or changes in rulers and that creates a lot of interesting bases for historical fiction. My first series, the Moroccan Empire, is set in 11th century Morocco and follows one man, Yusuf bin Tashfin, creating a Muslim empire across North Africa and Andalusia, in just a few decades, completing changing the existing power structure. Women were more restricted in what they could do or be and so the women on the historical record were often very unusual, interesting people. Yusuf’s queen was called Zaynab and a 12th century text describes her like this: “In her time there was none such as she – none more beautiful or intelligent or witty... she was married to Yusuf, who built Marrakech for her...” – what an introduction! I love doing the research, it can take months and even years while I write a whole series. I come to each era knowing nothing at all and having to start from scratch, everything from politics down to what to eat for breakfast, so it’s a real education! My house is beginning to overflow with research books, but it’s so hard to let go of them even when you’ve finished a series, they’ve become old friends.

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Q. What do you look out for on your research trips?
It’s all about the feel of a place, I take hardly any notes (that’s for my reference books and studying time), I just soak everything up. When I was in Morocco, I loved the camels and their grumpy noises when we rode on them. One of them became a minor character and a real friend to my heroine. The food, the smells, the call to prayer, the weather, the sound of the language, all of that. It’s a very sensory experience. In Marrakesh I saw one of the last oral storytellers in Morocco, I was entranced even though I didn’t understand what he was saying, it was like a glimpse of a past world. I dedicated one of the books in the series to him. I love research trips; they make the past I’m imagining come alive. The only problem is when modern people will keep walking in front of you! I’ve learnt to get up very, very early so I can have places to myself. It’s magical.


Q. Who or what inspires you to write a particular book?
I call it ‘the footnotes of history’ – it’s always a small mention of something or an odd gap in the historical record that draws my attention and demands a bit more research… and then some more, until it becomes a fully-fledged idea. With my Moroccan series there was an odd choice where Yusuf bin Tashfin, having created a vast Muslim empire covering North Africa and Andalusia, then gave that empire to the son of a Christian slave girl. He had a lot of other children he could have chosen from (including those of his queen Zaynab, who was a co-creator of that empire) and he picked a very quiet studious son, who ultimately lost the empire. It seemed a very odd choice on a number of levels and I ended up writing a possible explanation. ​

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Q. Tell us a bit about your latest book, does it have a historical setting or is it set in modern times?
Historical, it’s called Do Not Awaken Love and is the fourth and final novel in my Moroccan Empire series. It pulls all the threads together but can also be read as a standalone novel. It’s about a Spanish Christian woman sold as a slave to Morocco and how she ends up being a mother to the heir of a Muslim empire. The title comes from the Song of Solomon and it’s a journey of discovery for her as she moves from being very certain her own religion is best to opening up to friendships and love for people from other religions and cultures, but still holds onto her own life’s direction. It’s a lesson in love for her, in the wider sense. It’s due out next month. It’s a strange feeling when you come to the end of a series: it’s time to go but you feel a bit sorry to leave that time and place and those characters.


Q. When you’re not writing, what leisure time activities or hobbies do you enjoy?
Reading! And going to the cinema, so it’s storytelling all the way! I also enjoy travelling and most of my ideas for books have started or been developed by trips to the locations. My Moroccan Empire series started life in a small paragraph in a Lonely Planet guide to Morocco, which gave information on traditional Moroccan (Berber/Amazigh) jewellery and I thought it sounded so fascinating that it would be great to have a book where each chapter involves the lead character receiving a piece of jewellery, symbolising that stage of her story. That became A String of Silver Beads and kickstarted the whole series as well as my writing career. I have two little kids and I co-opt them as research assistants, they help me cook recipes from an era or try out things like oil lamps and other items from the past, depending on the era I’m researching. ​

Q. Who are your favourite authors? Are you swayed by particular genres?
My holy trinity is Terry Pratchett, Stephen King and Philippa Gregory, but my favourite book is The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. That’d be a no, then! I think I value storytelling and voice over genre, when I’m reading. I don’t read any other horror except King, for example, I just really like the way he writes about everyday life and then takes it one step further at a time and by the time you’ve realised it’s horror, it’s too late, you’re caught up in the story. I was so sad when Pratchett died, the thought of all the books he could have written, the topics he would have brought his own voice and insights to, is awful. I find Philippa Gregory really good on emotion, on what it feels like to get ever deeper into a dangerous situation, for example. And The Grapes of Wrath is an astonishing mix of enraged almost-journalism looking at a national situation (the Great Depression of the 1930s) alongside the pinpoint specificity of one fictional family enduring that but managing to inject everything from warmth to humour to utter tragedy in their daily lives as their journey proceeds. It’s a masterclass in writing.


Q. I see you are a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, do you have any particular advice for authors who are just starting?
Read lots and write lots. Reading gives you a sense of the different styles and craft options available to you. If you read all the great mythology from different eras and cultures it embeds an archetypal storyline in you. If you read different authors, it shows you how to write in different ways (everything from what tense to use, to how to manage the passing of time, for example) as well as what is desired and enjoyed in your particular genre by the reader. The more you write, the better you get, without even noticing it yourself, but your readers will.

When it comes time to get published, read up on traditional and self-publishing and make an informed choice on what you think would best suit you. I love self-publishing because I enjoy the business side as well as the creative side (and I like choosing my own covers!). ​
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​If you’d like to try Melissa's writing, you can download The Cup for FREE from her website www.melissaaddey.com; it’s a novella that kickstarts her Moroccan Empire series and is the story of a healer who makes an impossible vow and ends up serving Zaynab, queen to Yusuf.

You can also try The Consorts, which introduces her Forbidden City series, free on Amazon.  http://getbook.at/TheConsorts ​

Melissa's latest novel, 'Do Not Awaken Love' is the final book in the Moroccan series and is on promotion at 99p on 25th February.
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NEWSLETTER

23/1/2020

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Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2020 brings all that you could wish for.  As far as I’m concerned it can’t be worse than 2019 when I lost my husband, my best friend of almost thirty years. So for me this last year has been a time of readjustment which included selling my house and buying another one all within the space of a month. Pretty exhausting but it certainly is nice to have it all over quickly. So why am I telling you all this? Well, it’s to explain why I have decided to have a book launch for my latest historical novel, The Pirate, even though it’s been available for sale since November. There just hasn’t been time (or the inclination) to do it before.

The launch and book signing of The Pirate has been arranged for 21st February at 17.00 in the Bookworld bookshop in Puerto Banus. ( Edf. Marina Banús 1-2, Calle Ramón Areces, Local 15, 29660 Marbella, Málaga) I hope all of you that live in the area will pop in to say hello.

BookWorld in Puerto Banus is an excellent bookshop with a wonderful range of stock, but it is one of a dying breed - an English bookshop in Spain. When I first starting writing, 14 years ago, there were a number of BookWorlds, in Velez-Málaga, Fuengirola and Marbella. There were two excellent bookshops in Gibraltar and quite a few others in the area. They have all closed. The rise of ebooks has contributed to that. I know from my own sales that most people buy their books in ebook format; they are cheaper, easier to carry about and they are always to hand. But some readers still like the feel of a book between their fingers. There is a substance to it that makes one read more carefully, with more attention. It is easy to skim over a digital text but somehow the printed page makes one slow down.
Having just moved house, as I mentioned, I was faced with how to home my thousand or so books. 'Get rid of most of them,' my well-meaning friends advised. 'You're not going to read them all.' 'Give yourself more space.' They were being sensible. Some of the books were the original Penguin paperbacks, orange, battered, their pages yellowed and covered in dust. Many of them had belonged to my parents, some containing loving wishes for a Christmas or birthday-no birthday was complete without a book as a present in our home. But how could I explain to them that it would be like throwing out old friends? My books are not just paper and ink; they are unique worlds, each one containing a dozen different characters. As I tried valiantly to organise them into their reduced space, I realised that I would sooner have untidy bookshelves than empty ones. Now the last of the boxes has been emptied and the last book stacked. Only one problem, will I ever be able to find the book I want when I want it? My only solution had been to sort them by size! So if I want a particular novel by Ian McEwan, I need to remember its dimensions!



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A quick reminder about this new trilogy, THE CITY OF DREAMS:

It follows on from the al-Andalus series but with a new generation of the family taking the stage and  an explanation of the political developments in the country. This time the action is set in the popular city of Málaga. Although Málaga doesn’t have such international cultural fame as cities such as Córdoba and Granada, it has an equally rich past and every day new archeological discoveries are coming to light. Only recently the workers on building the new Metro found the extensive remains of some ancient tanneries.

In Book 1 ‘The Apothecary,’ we meet up again with the younger members of the family who had escaped from the besieged city of Córdoba.
Makoud, now a middle-aged apothecary, has come to Málaga with his family to work. Shortly after they arrive they hear of the sudden death of the caliph Yahya I and rumours that he was poisoned. Makoud is worried that the poison used by the assassins was bought from his shop. His son, Umar, now a soldier in the caliph’s army, decides to investigate but he underestimates the power of the people behind the assassination, and instead he finds himself accused of murder and locked in the dungeons. His father, family and friends pool all their resources to try to help him but the closer they get to the truth, the greater the danger they are in.



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In Book 2  ‘The Pirate,’ Bakr, the shipbuilder is kidnapped by pirates. It was interesting for me to research pirate life at the time and work out the sorts of places that they would hang out when they weren’t at sea. (I owe a debt of gratitude to the excellent book Pirates by Helen Hollick for much of the information I gleaned about pirate ways.)
This fast moving and exciting historical novel takes the reader into the medieval world of the merchants and seafarers who sailed along the western coast of the Mediterranean, and the pirates who terrorised them. Early one morning, the ambitious pirate captain, al-Awar, makes a lightning raid on the shipyard in Málaga and kidnaps Bakr, a master shipbuilder, and two of his workmen. Before anyone can do anything about it, they have disappeared. No-one has any idea why the pirates have taken them or where they have gone, but everyone agrees that only one of two fates await them: death or slavery.
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In Book 3 ‘The Scribe,’ we meet other members of the family and the story continues. Book 3 should be out in the Spring. Unless I decide to rearrange my bookshelves again. The Dewey system maybe?

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An imaginary interview with Makoud ibn Ahmad, born in the year 1000 AD

20/1/2020

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PictureThe river Guadalquivir
Q  As-salama alaykum, Makoud.
A  Peace be upon you also.

Q  Can you tell me a little about your life. How did you become a successful apothecary, a man respected by the Royal Household here in Malaqah?
A  It’s a long story. I am not originally from this taifa. When I was born there were no taifas; Qurtubah, my home city,  was the capital of al-Andalus and the country had only one ruler, the khalifa al-Hisham II. Now al-Andalus is split into many small taifas and each one is ruled by its own prince.

Q  What was life like in Qurtubah when you were growing up?
A   At first life was good. I had a normal childhood; I went to school, I attended the mosque on Fridays with my father and my brothers and I played with my friends. There was plenty of  food and people could wander about the city and feel safe. Qurtubah was prosperous and well known for its wonderful libraries. People came from all over the world to visit the city. My cousin, Salma, was a scribe and worked in one of the libraries. It was a peaceful place to grow up in and I was a happy child. We lived in a lovely old house by the edge of the river Guadalguivir with my father and mother, my grandmother and my brothers and sisters. I used to fish in the river with my father. I was the youngest of the family, and both my brothers were working, so they didn’t have much time for me. One was a doctor and the other was a soldier.

PictureThe ruins of Madinat al-Zahra
Q  I believe your father was a good friend of the khalifa.
A  Yes, my father, Ahmad, became his personal falconer when he was still an apprentice in Madinat al Zahra. He taught the khalifa, who was younger than him, how to hunt with the falcons and care for them. They remained friends for a while until my father moved to Qurtubah and got married. But he always considered him a friend and was loyal to him when everyone else deserted him.

Q  I am surprised that you didn’t become a falconer like your father.
A  My father would have liked that but I wanted to be a soldier, like my brother and my grandfather.

Q  So what happened?
A  My mother forbade it. She said that one soldier in the family was enough; she wasn’t going to lose two sons to the army. So I began helping my great-aunt, Layla. She knew so much about plants, especially herbs. She taught me which ones to use for healing and which to use for fragrances.

Q  And cooking?
A  Yes that too but I was more interested in their other uses. Many are poisonous if used incorrectly. They have to be picked at a certain time, dried in certain ways, prepared carefully. I found it fascinating, so I began to study as an apothecary.

Q  Was that in Qurtubah?
A  No, by then we’d moved to Ardales. Qurtubah was in ruins and the khalifa was in prison. We were lucky to escape with our lives. The city had been under siege for two years and people were starving. A terrible sickness had swept through the city and killed many people, but we were fortunate not to catch it, probably because my brother who was a doctor, gave us good advice. He adopted a system of quarantine at his hospital and gradually they got the disease under control.

PictureArdales
Q  So what happened to you next?
A  Well, as I said, the city was surrounded by Berber soldiers and the khalifa was powerless to do anything. Things looked very bad and then the governor of the city decided to surrender. It was a mistake. The soldiers slaughtered thousands of the citizens and sacked all the libraries and universities. Nothing remained. We grabbed what few possessions we could carry and my family and I escaped.

Q But how? Why weren’t you and your family killed by the soldiers?
​A  I suppose it doesn’t matter now if I tell you what happened: we escaped through an old tunnel under one of the Christian churches. My cousin’s friend, who also worked in the library, told her about it. Once we were out of the city we headed straight for Ardales, because my father had some relatives there. It was a long journey and we were terrified of being caught by the soldiers but once we were there we were safe. I continued to study with Layla and eventually began to work as an apothecary.

Q That doesn’t explain how you came to be living in Malaqah and how you are so well respected at court.
A  Ardales was a very sleepy little town. I tried to settle down there, to please my parents, but I was restless. I married a lovely girl and she gave me the most beautiful daughter in the world. I should have been content with what I had but I wanted sons. Every man must have sons. But Abal, my wife, had almost died when my daughter was born and because of that could bear me no more children. The law would have allowed me to divorce her, but I couldn’t do that. I loved her. So I took a second wife and she bore me three sons.
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Q  So it worked out well for both of them.
A  Not really. They are jealous of each other and bicker all the time. Basma is jealous of Abal because she is wife number one, and Abal is jealous of Basma because she had three sons. I try to keep out of their way as much as possible. When my mother was alive they kept their jealousy to themselves, but now Abal is in charge, it is impossible to control them.

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Q But weren’t they happy about moving to Malaqah?
A  Not at all. But for the first time they could agree on something, and that was that I was making a huge mistake. But I’d been itching for a chance to leave Ardales for years; I felt that I was growing old too quickly living there. I needed city life again. So when my son-in-law died of the sickness, I decided it was time for the rest of the family to move to Malaqah and have a new life. My sons needed work and there wasn’t much for them there. I had a Jewish friend who had moved from Qurtubah to Malaqah some years ago and by chance I heard that he was still living there, so I got in touch with him and he helped me to find a suitable shop to set up my business.

Q Right outside the alcazaba?
A  Yes, it is in a perfect spot and I have many customers who are from the palace. But it is not without its disadvantages.

Q  Such as?
A  You asked me how I am so well known at court, it is because of something that happened not long after I arrived in Malaqah. The khalifa died in mysterious circumstances and it was rumoured that he had been poisoned by poisonous herbs from my shop. It’s a complicated story, but with the help of my sons I was able to disprove the rumour and help them identify the khalifa’s killer. I and my family have been well treated by the royal family ever since.
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Q  Do you have any regrets about moving here?
​A  Absolutely none. It is a vibrant and cosmopolitan port and I love living here. My sons have made good livings and soon I hope that the eldest will be married. In a few years I will retire and my second son, Ibrahim, will take over the shop, and hopefully his son after him. Despite what my wives say on the matter, I know I made the right decision by moving to Malaqah.

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NOTE:
Makoud is the main character in the first novel in the City of Dreams series, The Apothecary. 

I have used the Moorish names for Málaga and Córdoba as they were at the time.



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Books 1 and 2 of The City of Dreams series are available on Amazon.

Book 3, The Scribe will be out in the Spring.

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Islamic influences and inventions

9/12/2019

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Many things that we take for granted in our daily life were passed down from the medieval Muslim world. From the way we eat, to the soap we use to wash our faces, a host of inventions have shaped our life style. We can’t underestimate the importance of Muslim influence on Europe and Spain in particular.
Coffee, for example—a cup of which is essential for me to start the day, and which I always thought originated in the Americas—is supposed to have been first discovered by an Arab goatherd in Ethiopia, who noticed that his animals became very lively after eating a particular wild berry. He decided to try it for himself and boiled some up to make the first coffee. Millions of people have enjoyed it ever since.
As the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention and it is very true. Cleanliness is stipulated in Islamic religious teachings as essential before prayer, so there was a constant demand in the Muslim world for decent quality soap. They needed to improve on the crude soap used by the Romans, so they mixed vegetable oils with sodium hydroxide, adding some sweet smelling herbs and produced a soap almost identical to that which is used today. One of the things the Muslims always found hard to understand was the Christian attitude to cleanliness and their strong body odour.
A putrid smell permeated Christian homes as well, because their floors were made of earth and covered by rushes, or rush mats which were changed infrequently. Consequently, over the years the filth accumulated under the rushes and began to smell. In Muslim Spain and other parts of the Muslim world, carpets and rugs woven from wool, and sometimes silk, were used to cover the floor. Their intricate designs and bright colours made the carpets decorative as well as functional and the idea of spreading carpets on the floor soon spread throughout Europe.

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In the 9th century, an Arabic scientist, Jabir ibn Hayyan invented the process of distillation, and as many of his processes and equipment are still used today, he could be said to be the founder of chemistry. Although his discovery of the method of distillation meant that alcoholic spirit could be made, the Muslim religion forbade them from drinking it. One wonders if ibn Hayyan just had the odd taste himself.
In the middle of the 10th century, the Sultan of Egypt wanted someone to invent a pen that wouldn’t stain his hands with ink, so one ingenious man came up with the fountain pen, which functioned on exactly the same lines as today’s fountain pen with a small reservoir to hold the ink.

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The garden was always a special place for the people of Muslim Spain, and their palaces and homes demonstrate this; you only have to visit the wonderful gardens in the Alhambra in Granada to realise how much care and attention they gave to them. For the Muslim in al-Andalus it wasn’t enough to just have kitchen and herb gardens to provide fruit, vegetables and aromatic herbs, they also built pleasure gardens for meditation and tranquility. Beautiful spaces with running water features, ponds filled with golden carp, marble pathways and flowers and shrubs that gave colour and fragrance to the garden. To them they were places of beauty, somewhere to sit and read or simply relax.

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The list of inventions bequeathed to us by medieval Muslim scientists could go on and on: the pin-hole camera (Camera Obscura), the game of chess, the crank-shaft, the combination lock, the art of quilting, the windmill, the technique of vaccination, even the modern cheque, which was invented in the 9th century to remove the risk of transporting large sums of money over dangerous territory, and many surgical instruments which have not changed their design in a thousand years. In the Middle Ages Muslim scientists were prolific in their inventions and their writings. ​

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Many new ideas were brought to Spain by a man called Ali ibn Nafi who arrived in al-Andalus in the 9th century from Bagdad. You may recognise him better by his nickname of Ziryab, the blackbird, so called because of his dark skin and his beautiful singing voice.
I have written about Ziryab before, concentrating on his influence on the Umayyad court on Córdoba in terms of fashion, hairstyle, eating habits and food, but he was primarily a singer, a poet, and a composer. He also played the oud. When he arrived in al-Andalsu he went straight to the emir, looking for a new life and a way to further his career. It was a good move. He soon became immensely popular with Abd al-Rahman II, and was paid a large salary to stay at the court, where his influence touched all parts of society. 
Not only did he entertain the emir with his playing and singing, but he also set up a music school and trained many young musicians. It is said the Andalusian classical music dates back to the emirate of Cordoba, to the time when Zirab was working there.

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One Sunday morning a friend rang to tell me that there was a programme on the BBC’s Radio 3 about early music and they were looking at the music of al-Andalus. He warned me it was rather long, almost three hours.
The programme was mostly examples of medieval classical music, along with information about the subject and interspersed with interviews from various experts. Some things surprised me. It’s easy to imagine that the only time Muslim al-Andalus and Christian Spain came into contact was on the battlefield, but apparently there were many Muslim and Jewish musicians in the Christian courts of medieval Spain, where Arabic music was greatly appreciated. The spirit of cultural convivencia continued in al-Andalus during the Middle Ages with examples of Jewish poets writing in Arabic for a Christian audience. In other aspects of the arts this cross cultural intermingling was also very evident in design and architecture. As with much of the history of that time, information is sparse and music historians have to rely a lot on conjecture, oral traditions and the interpretation of more recent examples of the type of music that is played in North Africa and the Middle East today. 
We do know some of the instruments that were used at the time, from carvings and sculptures, like the one on the Gate of Glory in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, showing two men playing an organistram, an early version of the hurdy-gurdy. Another image of that particular instrument is in the museum of Rouen, from the abbey of St Georges de Boscherville, with two women, a lady playing the keys and her maid turning the handle. The manufacture and design of musical instruments began in al-Andalus in the 10th century: lutes, rebecs (bowed stringed instruments which were possibly the fore-runner to the violin) guitars and nakers ( pairs of round drums) soon spread across Europe. ​

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We also know of the songs that were sung in al-Andalus because many poems have survived in the anthologies of famous poets, such as ibn Bassam, an eleventh century poet and historian. Poetry was a much admired skill, and there were both men and women poets, although fewer of the names of female poets have survived. One Muslim princess had her favourite poem embroidered into her dress.The people of al-Andalus made no distinction between a poet or a song writer, so we can assume that a great deal of the poems that have been saved may well have been sung, rather than recited. Many of the songs were often repetitive, sometimes no more than one line, and usually accompanied by the oud, the forerunner to the lute, or by the rhythm of a beating drum and clapping. Much of the music was lively and it is easy to imagine the swirling skirts of the dancers as they danced to the vibrant tunes. In the earlier years the fashion was for an individual singer to entertain, but by the eleventh century groups were singing in polyphonic unison.
A good singing voice was highly prized and it is recorded that during the thirteenth century, old women would teach singing to slave girls, so that they could perform in the royal courts. These groups of female singers and sometimes musicians, contributed greatly to the growth and development of literature and music in al-Andalus.

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New release : The City of Dreams Bk Two: The Pirate

16/10/2019

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It's hard to believe that we are now in the middle of October, when here in Málaga there are still people lying on the beach soaking up the sunshine and swimming in a tranquil sea. Having lived by this particular stretch of the Mediterranean now for over twenty years, I knew that one day I would have to write about it, and the perfect opportunity came when I was thinking of the plot for Book Two in the City of Dreams trilogy.

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You may remember that this historical series is set in the city of Málaga where, in the 11th century, the Mediterranean (or Middle Sea as it was known at the time) came right up to the fortified walls of the alcazaba. Those of you who have visited the area may recall how all along this coast there are Moorish watch towers, built as much to look out for pirates as any other enemy. Pirates were the scourge of the area, making lightning raids along the coast, sometimes for food and valuables, sometimes taking people to sell as slaves in north Africa. They left a trail of death and destruction behind them. Pirate ships were light and fast; each had a shallow draught so that they could get close to the shore and travel up rivers and estuaries with ease. Their main targets were the merchant ships that traded all along the Mediterranean coast. These ships were heavily laden, slow and often poorly defended. The lighter pirate vessels could easily outrun them. They also attacked fishermen and took their catch. Nothing was too small or insignificant for them.

So how could I write a trilogy about medieval Málaga without including the sea, and how could I talk about the sea without mentioning pirates? 

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In book two, the ambitious pirate captain, al-Awar, makes a lightning raid on the shipyard in Málaga and kidnaps Bakr, a master shipbuilder, and two of his workmen. Before anyone can do anything about it, they have disappeared. No-one has any idea why the pirates have taken them or where they have gone, but everyone agrees that only one of two fates await them: death or slavery. When Bakr’s wife receives the news, she is heartbroken but refuses to listen to those who say there is little hope of ever finding her husband alive. Instead she is determined to discover where the pirates have taken him. With the entire Mediterranean to hide in, finding the kidnapped men seems to be an impossible task, but she refuses to give up and motivates her family and friends to search for him.
At the heart of this novel is the tender love story of Aisha and Bakr’s deep feelings for each other. It is the thought of her that helps to keep him alive while he is in captivity with little prospect of ever seeing his home and family again, and it is her love for him that gives her the strength to never give up hope of bringing him home.
​
This fast moving and exciting historical novel takes the reader into the medieval world of the merchants and seafarers who sail along the western coast of the Mediterranean, and the pirates who terrorise them.

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The Pirate is currently available as an ebook from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. On 26th November it will become available in paperback from both Amazon, on-line bookshops and (if you have one in your area) high street book shops.

If you haven't read Book One, The Apothecary, I recommend you read that one first as it will enhance your enjoyment of The Pirate.


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MOORISH SPAIN AND THE MEDITERRANEAN DIET

17/6/2019

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​We’ve all heard of the Mediterranean Diet, but what exactly is it and what has it got to do with Moorish Spain? In a society concerned with increasing obesity in people of all ages, and the subsequent health issues that follow, more and more attention has turned to the need for improving our life styles, particularly our diet. Probably one of the most popular, and certainly the easiest of the numerous diets on offer, is the Mediterranean Diet, so called because it is the traditional combination of foodstuffs that the people living in Mediterranean countries have followed for centuries. But how many people today realise that this healthy and wholesome way of eating owes a lot to Moorish influence in the Middle Ages?
This recommended diet consists of a great number of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and pulses, together with fresh fish and seafood, all items that we can see on the supermarket shelves today no matter where we live. But did you know that much of this diet we owe to the Muslims who occupied Spain from the 8th until 15th centuries. The Christians may have expelled the last of the Moors in 1492 but they didn’t get rid of the legacy that they left in terms of cuisine, which has over the centuries spread across all of Europe.

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Many vegetables and fruits that we now consider to be native to Spain were in fact introduced by the Moors, most of which they in turn brought from India, Africa, Persia and the Spice Islands. The climate of the Mediterranean was perfect for growing these crops, and masters of irrigation that they were, the Moors soon cultivated the land and planted large areas of wheat and rice. They also grew spinach, eggplants, artichokes, chard, radishes, celery, carrots and even asparagus, which up until then had been discarded as a weed.
The Moors introduced sugar to Europe for the first time by bringing sugarcane from the Nile valley. It grew particularly well along the Mediterranean coast and especially in the Málaga area  of al-Andalus. Such was the liking for sweet foods that it became very popular in cakes, for making candied fruit and to sweeten fruit drinks, to preserve whole fruits and to make jams. One of the desserts that was as much in favour then as it is today, was churros, made from a doughnut type batter and deep-fried in oil, although in those days they preferred to cook it in boiling honey.

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​10th century Baghdad was the culinary centre of the age, where foods from Syria, Persia, India and Central Asia mingled. Much as today, food became not just a necessity, but a fashion which was  soon picked up by the elite Muslim families. Oddly enough it was one man in particular who shaped our current way of eating. His name was Abu al-Hasan and he was born in Baghdad in 789 AD. He was a court musician and became known as Ziryab (the Blackbird) because of the beautiful music he both played and sang. But Ziryab wasn’t just a musician, he was the man who brought new ideas about fashion and food to al-Andalus. When he was in his early thirties he arrived in al-Andalus and presented himself at the court of Abd al-Rahman II. From then on, things changed. Up until his arrival in Spain, eating was a very basic affair. Ziryab introduced a degree of sophistication into mealtimes. Tables were fitted with tooled leather coverings instead of being bare wood; there was a range of cutlery to use and crystal glasses. Instead of piling all the food onto a single plate, regardless of what it was, he suggested it should be served in a number of separate courses: soup to start, followed by fish or meat with vegetables, then cheese and fruit or nuts, just as we know it today. His ideas spread first from the royal courts to the nobility and then down to the common folk, then they spread out across Europe. In Córdoba they still prepare a dish called ziriabí made of roasted and salted broad beans, which is called after him. Another dish that he was known for, is Taqliyat Ziryab, made of meatballs and small pieces of dough fried in coriander oil. And in Zaragoza they still serve a dish of walnuts and honey that he made popular.

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​For the Moors, vegetables were important ingredients in any meal and were cooked just as we do today as part of the dish, rather than eaten raw or served as an accompaniment. Pulses, very high on the list of foods in the Mediterranean diet, were cooked in great quantities and added to spicy stews. Chickpeas, lentils and beans were a great source of protein and were more readily available and of course, cheaper than meat.
With the mild Mediterranean climate to help them, the Moors cultivated cherries, apples, pomegranates, bananas, figs, grapes, lemons and oranges. They used the grapes to make wine, vinegar to flavour their food, and dried them as raisins to add to their cooking. They also produced olive oil for cooking.
Flavouring was important to the Moors and they introduced many spices and herbs into al-Andalus: cinnamon, cardamon, coriander, cumin, mint, ginger, saffron, pepper, nutmeg and many others, all originating from India and Persia.
Nuts are also considered an important part of the Mediterranean diet and almonds and hazel nuts were often used in Moorish cuisine. Almonds, in particular grew in great abundance in al-Andalus and were used to make sweet pastries and marzipan, or ground into a smooth cream to make ajo blanco and Salmorejo.  Both of these savoury soups we still enjoy today. The Moors also made a paste called almori from salt, honey, raisins, pine nuts, almonds, hazel nuts and flour, which they pounded together, moulded into a flat piece and then left to harden. They would break off a piece of this hard paste, soak it in water until it had softened and then add it to whichever dish they were cooking. Instant goodness and more healthy than our modern stock cubes.
Durum wheat, which is harder than other wheat and contains less moisture, is ideal for making various types of pasta because it can be rolled and shaped more easily. It was brought from central Asia by the Muslims and introduced into Sicily and al-Andalus as early as the 9th century and has the pasta it produced has featured in recipe books dating back to the 13th century.
According to the owner of one well-known restaurant in Córdoba, the preparation of sweet and sour stuffed dishes stretches back to Moorish Spain, as does the practice of adding dried fruit and nuts to meat dishes. He proudly admits that his chef still prepares traditional al-Andalus recipes that date back eight hundred years or more.


If you are interested you can read more about these Andalusian recipes online at http://italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf

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Here is a short extract from one of my historical novels,  The Shining City, where they are preparing the evening meal for the Festival of Eid:
Evening was drawing in and the pale sun was hanging low in the sky.  Soon it would sink below the horizon leaving the sky an inky black.  They had built a bonfire outside in the street, alongside those of their neighbours.  Everyone was turning out now, the women carrying the food in earthenware containers, the men stoking the fires and tending to the meat.  Some were roasting whole animals over the charcoal, others had chopped their goat into pieces and were cooking it slowly in the embers of the fire.  The air was rich with the smells of cardamon, cinnamon and paprika.  Fatima had been all day preparing the goat that he and Ibrahim had slaughtered earlier.  It was a good animal, young and tender.  He had butchered it into pieces and his wife had marinated it with salt, pepper, dried coriander, cumin, saffron and oil.  He had bought the finest saffron specially for the feast.  Fatima had put the meat into their largest earthenware pot with layers of aubergine, chopped almonds, meat balls and lavender.  Now it would simmer on the fire until it was done and then she would thicken it with whipped eggs and crown it with egg yolks.  Qasim’s mouth watered as he thought about it.  It was a recipe Fatima’s mother had made every Eid.  Now Fatima did it for her family.

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The Apothecary: why I came to write it.

9/4/2019

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At long last the first novel in the new historical series The City of Dreams is published. As usual the cover designer I use has come up with a stunning cover, which although more understated that previously—she says it is the current fashion--gives a good sense of what you will find inside. 
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I have lived in Málaga, on and off, for more than thirty years now, and love the city, which seems to get more interesting and more beautiful every year. It certainly is a very different place from when I first came here in 1988. I
n the al-Andalus series I have written at length about Moorish Spain, and Córdoba in particular,  and felt that it was now time to discover what it must have been like to have lived in Málaga almost a thousand years ago, when it too was ruled by the Moors.

The Apothecary is the story of Makoud, a middle-aged man, who arrives in Málaga with his family, looking to make a new life for themselves. It is the year 1035 AD and Málaga is no longer ruled by the Omayyad dynasty who had held the country together for the last two hundred and seventy-five years. The Golden Age of Moorish Spain is over; Córdoba is no longer the cultural capital of the western world, and the country which had been a strong, united state is now in disarray. Al-Andalus had split into a number of warring princedoms, which were referred to as 'taifas.' 
Málaga was one such taifa, but with a difference; it was ruled by a caliph and not an emir. When Yahya I inherited the title of caliph from his father Ali ibn Hammud, he found he was no longer welcome in Córdoba, so he moved his court to Málaga and declared the city to be an independent taifa. However he soon found himself at war with his neighbours, in particular the taifa of Seville.

So this is the turbulent city where Makoud and his family find themselves. At first life is good. Makoud opens his own apothecary shop and his sons find work. But when the caliph dies and rumours suggest that he has been poisoned, Makoud becomes worried that he may have sold the poison to the assassin. His eldest son decides to investigate the caliph's death and soon finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue, lies and murder.

The Apothecary is available as an ebook and in paperback from Amazon and other bookstores.
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    Joan Fallon is a writer and novelist living in Spain.

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