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Life on a Basque Mountain is an inspiring - but also humorous - memoir of an English single mother who exchanges the comforts of suburban life for a tiny, isolated barn on top of a mountain in the Basque Pyrenees. Here, buoyed by the support of local shepherds, lumberjacks and smugglers, she builds an internationally successful business from little more than an idea on a scrap of paper. Effortlessly weaving historical research with lively behind-the-scenes vignettes of daily life, the book offers a rare and comprehensive perspective on all things Basque (history, politics, traditions, language, mythology etc), while threading into the narrative a rhapsody on the theme of identity. The book follows the adventures of an outsider: a single mother, linguist, cosmopolitan nomad and cultural chameleon, who paradoxically makes her home amongst an indigenous people deeply rooted in their land, with a language and culture dating back to stone-age times. Unwittingly, she repays their hospitality by luring anti-terrorist squads, blackmailers and spies into their midst as the dramatic past of the Basque Country proves to have unexpected and far-reaching consequences. AUTHOR: Originally from Birmingham, Georgina Howard studied European languages before heading to Copenhagen where she worked as a writer and taught intercultural awareness skills to Danish statisticians. But it wasn't long before she rebelled. With an unsatiated passion for maps, mountains and metaphors, she packed her bags and drove south to an isolated Basque hamlet in the Spanish Pyrenees where she built her business, Pyrenean Experience, which runs an eclectic mix of walking, culture and language holidays. Her working environment has altered dramatically from the husky-drawn sledges of the Innuit hunters in Greenland, where she taught English, to the rocky ravines of the Spanish/French border where she guides walks along the World War II escape lines. She has been a feature writer for the Sunday Times and contributed to the Bradt Guide to the Basque Country and Navarre. She can communicate in seven European languages and to the embarrassment of her Basque daughter is even learning the rudiments of septic tank plumbing (in Basque!)...
About the author
Originally from Birmingham, UK,
Georgina Howard (pyreneanexperience.com) studied European languages before heading to Copenhagen where she worked as a writer and taught intercultural awareness skills to Danish statisticians. After eight years, she rebelled. With an unsatiated passion for maps, mountains and metaphors, she packed her bags with Earl Grey teabags and Danish candles, driving south to an isolated Basque hamlet in the Spanish Pyrenees. Few outsiders have lived in this remote setting, and even fewer for the 25 years that Howard already has enjoyed. As a single mother bringing up a half-Basque daughter with the help of the local shepherds, she has gained privileged insights into the local culture and Basque mountain life, including its former cross-border smuggling community. Here she set up a tour operator, Pyrenean Experience, which offers an eclectic mix of walking, culture and language holidays.
In the Footsteps of Smugglers is her first book for Bradt.
