A charming, eccentrically amateurish account of a solo(*) riding tour through Andalusia in the early 1960s, when Lady Betjeman’s husband and children had grown up and left home and she was free to resume the habits of independent travel she had formed as a young woman in India in the 1930s.

With its brisk tone, it does read a little bit like an extended WI lecture, and on occasion made me recall her granddaughter’s hint that Lady B liked to muddle up her slides a little bit on purpose for comic effect when lecturing about her travels: sometimes we get just a shade too much “incompetent old lady” stuff to be quite convincing (she was barely into her fifties at this point, and still had a quarter of a century’s trekking in the Himalayan foothills ahead of her). But it’s none the worse for this little touch of artifice, which not only engages our amused sympathy, but also cleverly ties her story in with her three great literary models, Cervantes, Richard Ford, and George Borrow. (Although Borrow was as rabid an Evangelical as she is a Catholic, she is clearly prepared to overlook that in someone so sound on horses.) It’s certainly striking how little life in rural Andalusia seems to have changed since Ford and Borrow were there a century or so earlier. I imagine she’d find it rather different now. There is a wonderful Britishness about her ability to enjoy staying in primitive, uncomfortable conditions whilst simultaneously complaining about them!

Her sympathy with the local people she meets and her ability to establish a rapport with them are very endearing. Less so is her uncritical assumption that any right-wing dictator who is good to Catholic priests must be a Good Thing for his people...

(*) the other "lady" of the title is the mare - borrowed from the Duke of Wellington, no less - Lady B rode during her trip. ( )

A delightful account of a Spanish ride.
Inspired by the travels of Mrs John Betjeman and her horse Marquesa, we sought out the troglodyte dwellings of Guadix, where we were invited to look inside one of these homes - beautifully fitted out with all mod cons. ( )