Spanish Steps: Travels Wih My Doney Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

Spanish Steps: Travels Wih My Doney Book

If Tim Moore's Spanish Steps is a prime example of a new kind of travel writing--sardonically funny, quirkily observed and full of bizarre detail--that's good news for readers; if Bill Bryson has forged a whole new genre, who can complain if other writers plough similar fields? Particularly if they do it with as much gusto as Tim Moore. In fact, Moore is actually a rather more penetrating writer than the better-known Bryson, and this tale of a foolhardy pilgrimage with a recalcitrant donkey makes some salient points in between the healthy crop of stinging one-liners. Moore had been fascinated by stories he'd heard of pilgrimages which many Europeans had taken through sultry and unwelcoming Spanish terrain to Santiago de Compostela. The sub-title says it all: "One Man and his Ass on the Pilgrim Way to Santiago"--and Moore's treacherous donkey is as much a character as the bizarre dramatis personae the author encounters. Everything is against him: weather that saps his resolve at every step of the way, impossible dormitories (some of the funniest sections of the book), eccentric fellow travellers, and an animal that, if it could speak, would be constantly asking "is this journey really necessary?"Amid the acres of scary impediments that fall into Moore's path, a whole host of detail crowds in that makes Spain come to vivid life: we're given a seat-of-the-pants experience quite as memorable (and occasionally painful) as the author's. The descriptions are priceless: Unexpected confrontation with full-frontal, Pilsner-bellied German nudity was an occupational hazard in any refugio bathroom… (the man's) wrinkled pilgrim parts now rested on the rim of the sink I was waiting to clean my teeth in… But many serious points are made--always lightly--about a million subjects (not least the lessons of history) in the delightful pages of Spanish Steps. --Barry ForshawRead More

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  • Amazon

    Presents the story of what happens when a rather silly man tries to walk all the way across a very large country, with a very large animal who doesn't really want to.

  • Play

    Being larger than a cat the donkey falls into that category of animal which Tim Moore is at least slightly scared of. Yet intrigued by epic accounts of a pilgrimage undertaken by one in three medieval Europeans and strangely committed to historical authenticity he finds himself leading a Pyrenean ass named Shinto into Spain headed for Santiago de Compostela. Nuzzling businessmen at a city-centre zebra crossing or shuffling after German policewomen across a broiled and lonely plain the pair bring smiles to every local face and not all of brazen derision. Over 500 miles of extreme weather agonising bestial sloth and triple-bunk dormitories it becomes memorably apparent that for the multinational band of eccentrics who keep the Santiagan flame alive the pilgrimage has evolved from a purely devotional undertaking into a mobile therapist's couch. Ludicrous heart-warming and improbably inspirational "Spanish Steps" is the story of what happens when a rather silly man tries to walk all the way across a very large country with a very large animal who doesn't really want to.

  • Foyles

    Ludicrous, heart-warming and improbably inspirational, Spanish Steps is the story of what happens when a rather silly man tries to walk all the way across a very large country, with a very large animal who doesn't really want to.Being larger than a cat, the donkey is the kind of animal Tim Moore is slightly scared of. Yet intrigued by epic accounts of a pilgrimage undertaken by one in three medieval Europeans, and committed to historical authenticity, he finds himself leading a Pyrenean ass named Shinto into Spain, headed for Santiago de Compostela.Over 500 miles of extreme weather and agonising bestial sloth, it becomes memorably apparent that for the multinational band of eccentrics who keep the Santiagan flame alive, the pilgrimage has evolved from a purely devotional undertaking into a mobile therapist's couch.'Hailed as the new Bill Bryson, he is in fact a writer of considerably more substance and the jokes come thick and fast' Irish Times

  • BookDepository

    Spanish Steps : Paperback : Vintage Publishing : 9780099471943 : : 28 Jun 2011 : Ludicrous, heart-warming and improbably inspirational, Spanish Steps is the story of what happens when a rather silly man tries to walk all the way across a very large country, with a very large animal who doesn't really want to. Being larger than a cat, the donkey is the kind of animal Tim Moore is slightly scared of.

  • 0099471949
  • 9780099471943
  • Tim Moore
  • 2 June 2005
  • Vintage
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 336
  • New edition
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