In the Footsteps of Smugglers
My Life on a Basque Mountain
Published on 17. July 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-1-80469-211-0 (ISBN)
Description
After eight years living in Copenhagen, an English journalist, driven by a passion for languages and mountains, finally rebels. With little more than an assortment of Earl Grey teabags, Danish candles and a map, Georgina Howard abandons her all-too-cosy, cinnamon-scented lifestyle and drives south. The journey leads to wild and craggy landscapes in the Basque Pyrenees on the French/Spanish border, where place names are written in a bizarre, foreign tongue full of 'x's and 'z's. Losing her heart to this beautiful land and her pride to the inscrutability of the language, Howard moves into an isolated barn in a mountain hamlet. While pagan festivals reverberate through the valleys, her Basque neighbours - farmers, shepherds, a gravedigger and a champion female lumberjack - observe her, bemused. Only when her daughter, Marion, is born - after an unsuccessful relationship with an eccentric Basque miller - do Howard's neighbours drop their reserve and welcome her into their homes. Taking Marion's upbringing upon themselves, they fatten her up on spicy Basque sausages and black bean stews, teach her Basque nursery rhymes and train her to milk sheep. Meanwhile, Howard converts a barn into the headquarters of an international business providing walking, culture and language tours. Resigned to the ineptitude of their new neighbour, with patience and amusement, the locals tow her car out of ditches and teach her how to stack wood, catch mice, unblock septic tanks and drink wine from a leather gourd. In the Footsteps of Smugglers follows the adventures of an outsider: a single mother, linguist, cosmopolitan nomad and cultural chameleon who paradoxically makes her home among 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. An inspiring, humorous travel memoir, Bradt's In the Footsteps of Smugglers weaves behind-the-scenes vignettes of daily rural life and historical research to produce authentic insights on all things Basque, threaded with a rhapsody on the theme of identity.
More details
Person
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.
Content
CONTENTS
The Basque Country - a Question of Definition
Basque Words and Spelling
Prologue My Life on a Basque Mountain
PART 1 SCANDINAVIA
Chapter 1 Heading North - The Wheelchair in the Snow
PART 2 THE BASQUE COUNTRY
Chapter 2 Heading South - Alice in Wonderland
Chapter 3 Navarre and the Basques - Heading into the Beyond
The two definitions of the 'Basque Country', introduction to Navarre, the institution of the
Basque house, the Basque code of honour (euskaldun hitza), Basque 'sheepherders' in America, Guernica, the Spanish Civil War.
Chapter 4 Marketing - Telephones and Witches
Basque politics and ETA (1), Basque flags and nationalism.
Chapter 5 The Baztan Valley - Noble Peasants, Pilgrims and Cider
Baztan Valley lifestyle and landscapes in the sixteenth century, Camino de Santiago, the Codex
Calixtinus, cider.
Chapter 6 Finding the Walks - Chocolate Croissants, Maps and Cold Cups of Tea
Geography and topography, Basque mythology (1) (lamiak), smuggling tales (1), the WWII Comet Line resistance network (1).
Chapter 7 The Guests Arrive - Mutiny in the Kitchen
Basque architecture, Spanish-English cultural differences.
Chapter 8 People - Sheiks and Silver Robots
Chapter 9 A Basque Fiesta - As Good as it Gets
ETA (2), Basque culture and fiestas.
Chapter 10 A New Valley - The Grandmother, the Miller and the Ostrich
Geography and topography.
PART 3 MY BASQUE MOUNTAIN
Chapter 11 A House with a View - The Turtle on the Tap
Basque farms and farming life, Basque house names.
Chapter 12 My Basque Village - The Hello Kitty Fountain
Basque village life (1).
Chapter 13 A Basque Baby - A Fairy Godmother with an Axe
Basque village life (2) and local characters.
Chapter 14 My Neighbours - The Wellington Boot in the Snow
Basque community and solidarity, life under Franco (1), wedding traditions, gravedigging, the annual pig-killing (matanza).
Chapter 15 Local History - Tin Cows and Tadpoles
Spanish Inquisition in the Basque Country, popular witches' tales, inheritance laws, life under Franco (2).
Chapter 16 The Seasons - British Unpunctuality
Mountain architecture, superstitions (eguzkiloreak), haymaking, hunting, paganism, the winter festival of the Joaldunak.
Chapter 17 Basque Borders and the Comet Line - Eggnogs and Petticoats
Smuggling (2), the Comet Line and resistance (2).
Chapter 18 Mother and Baby - Snakes, Toothpaste Tubes and the Moon
Farming traditions, planting by the moon, traditional Basque food, the Basque language (1).
Chapter 19 Culture Shock - Maggots in the Toy Chest
The local death toll, genetics.
Chapter 20 A Family Business - Hangman and the Unfortunate Word
Chapter 21 The Basque Language - Strawberry Ice Creams and Greedy Pigs
History of the Basque language (2), Basque rhyming bards (bertsolariak), Basque mythology (2).
Chapter 22 The Village Calendar - Wheelbarrow Races and Grumpy Coalmen
Basque schools, Basque sports, local traditions.
Chapter 23 Ituren Church - Stories from Beyond the Grave
Murdered bodies in Ituren graveyard, life under Franco (3).
Chapter 24 House and Home - Mushrooms and Marshmallows
Farming traditions and land rights.
Chapter 25 Gilbert: An Imposter in my Home - Music Boxes and Mountain Savages
Spanish anti-terrorist squads in the Basque country, cultural prejudices.
Chapter 26 Apres Gilbert - Two Trees and a Headless Woman
Intercultural exchanges.
Epilogue One Heading North Again
Identity and cultural integration.
Epilogue Two Heading Home
Ownership of the land.
Endnote
The Basque Country - a Question of Definition
Basque Words and Spelling
Prologue My Life on a Basque Mountain
PART 1 SCANDINAVIA
Chapter 1 Heading North - The Wheelchair in the Snow
PART 2 THE BASQUE COUNTRY
Chapter 2 Heading South - Alice in Wonderland
Chapter 3 Navarre and the Basques - Heading into the Beyond
The two definitions of the 'Basque Country', introduction to Navarre, the institution of the
Basque house, the Basque code of honour (euskaldun hitza), Basque 'sheepherders' in America, Guernica, the Spanish Civil War.
Chapter 4 Marketing - Telephones and Witches
Basque politics and ETA (1), Basque flags and nationalism.
Chapter 5 The Baztan Valley - Noble Peasants, Pilgrims and Cider
Baztan Valley lifestyle and landscapes in the sixteenth century, Camino de Santiago, the Codex
Calixtinus, cider.
Chapter 6 Finding the Walks - Chocolate Croissants, Maps and Cold Cups of Tea
Geography and topography, Basque mythology (1) (lamiak), smuggling tales (1), the WWII Comet Line resistance network (1).
Chapter 7 The Guests Arrive - Mutiny in the Kitchen
Basque architecture, Spanish-English cultural differences.
Chapter 8 People - Sheiks and Silver Robots
Chapter 9 A Basque Fiesta - As Good as it Gets
ETA (2), Basque culture and fiestas.
Chapter 10 A New Valley - The Grandmother, the Miller and the Ostrich
Geography and topography.
PART 3 MY BASQUE MOUNTAIN
Chapter 11 A House with a View - The Turtle on the Tap
Basque farms and farming life, Basque house names.
Chapter 12 My Basque Village - The Hello Kitty Fountain
Basque village life (1).
Chapter 13 A Basque Baby - A Fairy Godmother with an Axe
Basque village life (2) and local characters.
Chapter 14 My Neighbours - The Wellington Boot in the Snow
Basque community and solidarity, life under Franco (1), wedding traditions, gravedigging, the annual pig-killing (matanza).
Chapter 15 Local History - Tin Cows and Tadpoles
Spanish Inquisition in the Basque Country, popular witches' tales, inheritance laws, life under Franco (2).
Chapter 16 The Seasons - British Unpunctuality
Mountain architecture, superstitions (eguzkiloreak), haymaking, hunting, paganism, the winter festival of the Joaldunak.
Chapter 17 Basque Borders and the Comet Line - Eggnogs and Petticoats
Smuggling (2), the Comet Line and resistance (2).
Chapter 18 Mother and Baby - Snakes, Toothpaste Tubes and the Moon
Farming traditions, planting by the moon, traditional Basque food, the Basque language (1).
Chapter 19 Culture Shock - Maggots in the Toy Chest
The local death toll, genetics.
Chapter 20 A Family Business - Hangman and the Unfortunate Word
Chapter 21 The Basque Language - Strawberry Ice Creams and Greedy Pigs
History of the Basque language (2), Basque rhyming bards (bertsolariak), Basque mythology (2).
Chapter 22 The Village Calendar - Wheelbarrow Races and Grumpy Coalmen
Basque schools, Basque sports, local traditions.
Chapter 23 Ituren Church - Stories from Beyond the Grave
Murdered bodies in Ituren graveyard, life under Franco (3).
Chapter 24 House and Home - Mushrooms and Marshmallows
Farming traditions and land rights.
Chapter 25 Gilbert: An Imposter in my Home - Music Boxes and Mountain Savages
Spanish anti-terrorist squads in the Basque country, cultural prejudices.
Chapter 26 Apres Gilbert - Two Trees and a Headless Woman
Intercultural exchanges.
Epilogue One Heading North Again
Identity and cultural integration.
Epilogue Two Heading Home
Ownership of the land.
Endnote