A funny, generous, wonderfully written account of an family making a life and home in remote but enchanting southern Spain.

At seventeen, Chris Stewart, the first drummer for the rock group Genesis, left the band and launched a career that included stints as a sailor, a sheep shearer, and a travel writer. And he has no regrets.

If he'd become a rock star, he might never have moved with his wife, Ana, to El Valero, a mountain farm in Andalucía, Spain, studded with olive, almond, and lemon groves -- but with no access road, water supply, or electricity. He might never have forged the friendship of a lifetime with his resourceful neighbor Domingo. He might never have had the adventures that resulted in both hilarious disasters and blissful serendipity. He might never have experienced the satisfying complexity of a simple life lived in one of Europe's most beautiful regions, among peasants, farmers, ex-pats, New Age travelers, and a growing family, or come to understand a place and its people with such depth and affection. And certainly Stewart, the eternal optimist, would never have written this delectable book and made us his utterly captivated audience.

How can you rate a book when the author is so candidly and pleasantly sharing his life. He and his wife have turned their backs on the rat race so to speak of life in the twenty-first century. Instead of commuting to work and sitting in an office all day, he and his wife are living close to the earth on a rugged farm in a beautiful mountain region of Spain.

This book has been mailed to alexiapapa of Larissa, Greece as a birthday surprise.

Happy Birthday, alexiapapa.

Thank you for this wonderful surprise!