Lost Paradise

The Story of Granada

Elizabeth Drayson

$24.99

Paperback

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English

Head of Zeus
05 October 2022

History; European history; History: earliest times to present day; Travel writing

The essential history of an iconic European city, by Cambridge academic Elizabeth Drayson.

'An admirable achievement... [Drayson has] expertise as a scholar and command as a storyteller' BBC History Magazine

'A glittering homage to one of the world's most beautiful and storied cities' Dan Jones

'Beauty built on blood and brutality... A fascinating new tome' Daily Mail

From the early Middle Ages to the present, foreign travellers have been bewitched by Granada's peerless beauty. The Andalusian city is also the stuff of story and legend, with an unforgettable history to match. Romans, then Visigoths, settled here, as did a community of Jews; in the eleventh century a Berber chief made Granada his capital, and from 1230 until 1492 the Nasrids – Spain's last Islamic dynasty – ruled the emirate of Granada from their fortress-palace of the Alhambra. After capturing the city to complete the Christian Reconquista, the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella made the Alhambra the site of their royal court.

In Lost Paradise, Elizabeth Drayson takes the reader on a voyage of discovery that uncovers the many-layered past of Spain's most complex and fascinating city, celebrating and exploring its evolving identity. Her account brings to the fore the image of Granada as a lost paradise, revealing it as a place of perpetual contradiction and linking it to the great dilemma over Spain's true identity as a nation. This is the story of a vanished Eden, of a place that questions and probes Spain's deep obsession with forgetting, and with erasing historical and cultural memory.

By: Elizabeth Drayson
Imprint: Head of Zeus
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 128mm, Spine: 30mm
Weight: 360g
ISBN: 9781788547437
ISBN 10: 1788547438
Pages: 480
Publication Date: 05 October 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Elizabeth Drayson is Emeritus Fellow in Spanish at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge; she is a specialist in medieval and early modern Spanish literature and cultural history. The author of The Moor's Last Stand, The Lead Books of Granada and The King and the Whore, Drayson has also produced the first translation and edition of Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor to appear in England. She lives in Cambridge.

Reviews for Lost Paradise: The Story of Granada

'An admirable achievement ... With her expertise as a scholar and her command as a storyteller, Drayson delivers a fascinating study that is part love letter to a city, part commentary on how memory is a force that impacts each successive age' * BBC History Magazine * 'Beauty built on blood and brutality! Elizabeth Drayson delves into the history of Granada in a fascinating new tome' * Daily Mail * 'A glittering homage to one of the world's most beautiful and storied cities ... Brilliantly and compellingly places Granada at the heart of more than two millennia of Mediterranean history' -- Dan Jones 'Drayson's book is a labour of love and it tells: there is a passion in her writing, in every detail that she has to offer about the history of the region ... A gloriously illustrated book as compelling to look at as it is to read' * International Times * PRAISE FOR THE MOOR'S LAST STAND: 'A lively biography ... Revels in the high drama and spectacular gore of Boabdil's story' Sunday Times. 'Charming and eye-opening ... Drayson does a splendid job of putting flesh on Boabdil's story' Guardian. 'Clearly reconstructs the complicated politics of Granada and brings back to life a historical figure shrouded in mystery and legend ... A pleasure to read' BBC History Magazine 'An enthralling and tragic story that forces the reader to reflect on the nature of heroism' -- Gerard DeGroot