Andrew Russell

Sandcastles in Spain Andrew Russell

A SUNNY READ FOR A SHADY DAY. CONFESSIONS FROM A SPANISH INQUISITION. AN UNRELIABLE MEMOIR... "Very witty, and great descriptive prowess." An extract from a 5 Star review on Amazon Spain.


'The patrician rules of the Bella Vista ex pat association were defied daily by the Spanish. The swimming pool was off-limits between eight in the evening and eight in the morning, so Manuel, a seventy-year-old sprite, was encouraged by Maria, my immediate neighbour who regularly dressed as Fidel Castro, to take his matinal dip at a dewy 7am thereby, according to the association, waking all heavy-eyed Bella Vistans with his one lap of snail-paced breaststroke. Loud music was prohibited during the afternoon to accommodate siesta, so Maria would habitually ramp up her stereo to Hollywood Bowl.

Laundry was being hung from balconies and not in the designated area, and the Gallicean squatters in the end apartment had erected a satellite dish that must have been purloined from the little-known and now lesser Gallicean Space Agency. A notice was served by the association reminding them of the roof space allotted to each apartment for satellite dishes and asking them to remove theirs as it was exceeding these dimensions. With an admirable display of sophism they politely declined, replying, quite reasonably, that as squatters they were neither residents nor leasers and therefore the rules of the association were not applicable to them. The dish remained.'


Sandcastles in Spain is a whimsical look at three years of an aspirant writer caught on the horns of artistic procrastination and ex-pat mores. It is also the result of a man conceding to his limitations whilst trying to produce something readable to others before a future involving hover cars.