Following a popular, if somewhat jaded, trend of Brits to pursue the good life in sunnier climes, Deborah Fletcher and her husband John eventually came to be the proud owners of a large and extremely beautiful piece of land in a river valley in Southern Spain. There, with three dogs, a cat, six parrots and an awful lot of spiders, they lived between a static caravan and a huge old barn as they battled perpetually - with the elements, the wildlife, the authorities and the natives - to build their dream home from a pile of old stones. Bitten by Spain began as a series of emails back home to let friends and family know how things were going. Now, you too, can share in this intimate, warts and all, take on Spanish rural life and what it's like learning to live with the wildlife, including the natives, in a finca in el campo of Southern Spain.
Bitten by Spain: Renovating a Finca in Murcia
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From the Author
I sat alone in a static caravan on our newly-acquired piece of north-west Murcia in March 2007. Well, no - I say alone, but in fact I enjoyed the company of a couple of dogs, a cat and five parrots. It was stormy, dark and lonely. I had no telephone, no books to read, no TV. Not even a bottle of wine to dull the pain. So I started to write.
I subsequently wrote little pieces regularly (a blog, if you like) to e-mail to distant friends and family. These bore tales of all the big and small events unfolding in my new life here, many challenging, many humourous. I told of the wild and beautiful scenery, the sometimes wonderful, oftimes awful weather I suffered. I spoke of the antics of the animals (and the additions to same), the ways of the Spanish neighbours and townsfolk, the interactions with the tradesmen and the Ayuntamiento, the wildlife ... and when all these little pieces came together and were shaped and stretched and pummelled to fit together, they became "Bitten by Spain".
From the Inside Flap
The Costa Calida Chronicle, July 2008 With a great deal of humour, Debs describes life in a remote valley, while she and her husband are renovating a shed into a liveable house with all the modern commodities necessary for us Northern Europeans. All the while their Spanish neighbours are watching, shaking their heads.
Wild life, in the form of spiders, wild boars and scorpions; pets - whether dogs, cats or cockatoos; neighbourly courtesies, being over-the-fence exchange of produce or at special occasions, are all things anybody who has settled among the Spanish in a rural environment can relate to.
Debs describes it with a wonderful sense of humour - aiming both at our peculiar set ways as well as our hosts'.
It is easy reading, full of humour and love for the Spanish way of life. I enjoyed reading it because it is the first book I have come across that I can relate to after 12 years of sharing my life with the Murcians.
Read it - it is a true description of rural Murcian life from an expat's point of view!
Biggy Marshall, Murcia
A book I read avidly, having started greedily after shelving the current. Hard to put down as it's like being there! It's a well written book full of interest and humour.
Paul Spooner
I could have read this book in one go but I savoured it over two sessions. It was brilliant. Wish it was longer! Look forward to the next one.
Shari Ferari
Your book arrived, and I dived straight into it and forgot to make the old man any dinner . It's a really good read, and it's just as if I was listening to you on the phone - you write so descriptively and confidently that the pages just fly by! I have pretty much decided that there are far too many spiders and nowhere near enough wine for my liking, and that you have achieved what most women would have nightmares about!
Susan Beck
Both Sonia and I so very much enjoyed reading Deb's book, Spiders and Wine. Neither of us could put the book down. It was so entertaining with many laughs and quite a number of things we so easily identify with.
Jim and Sonia Bishop
The Reporter Newspaper, July 2008
This book covers many of the humorous aspects of living temporarily in a static caravan in the Murcian campo whilst trying to create (illegally, as it turned out) a home from an old casita! It describes many of the Spanish habits and foibles, the surroundings, the climate, and all the wildlife with which Deborah herself co-exists, including her ever increasing zoo of parrots, dogs and cats. This book is an interesting, funny and realistic story of a British couple and their move to the north-west area of Murcia, the trials and tribulations, good happenings and the kindness of neighbours, along with the inherent difficulties and the anticipated joys of moving to sunny, complicated, sometimes frustrating but always fascinating Spain.
Anyone interested in Spain, moving to Spain or who has actually moved here will enjoy this well written and absorbing account, which grew out of Deborah sending emails to friends and family detailing her daily happenings and all the ordinary and not so ordinary things which make up the life of this ex-pat couple.
Anyone who enjoys a good read particularly about the love affair the British have with Spain (albeit sometimes a love-hate relationship) will enjoy this book!
Clare Smith
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Bitten by Spain,
This review is from: Bitten by Spain: Renovating a Finca in Murcia (Paperback)
I read "Bitten by Spain" thirty months after moving to Murcia and wish I had done so before arriving. Other writers had laid out their well intentioned advice and opinions and confirmed our decision on why to move to Spain. None of them managed to explain the necessary complete change of attitude needed to settle happily here as well as Deborah Fletcher does. However much we had prepared ourselves for the chaotic system, the timekeeping of tradesmen, the laid back attitude of the vast majority of Spanish people to life, the reality we found was even more extreme! So her account of life in Murcia is not unusual, contains no exaggerations, it really tells it like it is. If anyone is even thinking of relocating to rural Spain BUY THIS BOOK!!!
Iain Stewart, Murcia
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