It will always remain a mystery: why did I take so long to discover Paul Richardson? But still, it's just as well. I find that the good man's written other tomes, all looking equally enticing, and so not too much time must be spent beating one's breast.

As for this work, it's outstanding. Richardson is one of those who fall in love with a country and then simply move there. It helps to fall in love with a native of said country, which Richardson obligingly does. What else remains then, but to travel extensively, eat indulgently, and write marvellously?

Setting my jealousy aside, I began to read. The book is set out in three parts: Coast, Land, and City. Each part has long chapters on between three and seven places. In this way he traverses the whole country, giving us in depth knowledge, insight, snippets of his personal life, a bit of humor, and of course a whole lot of bellyaching because one is not, at the instant of reading, sitting down to the dinner which he is so enticingly describing.

In the Introduction he sets the tone. As a callow, middle class British youth, he'd first visited Spain as a backpacker, picking it over the usual preferred destinations of Italy and France. During that trip, in which he stayed with friends, he attended a particularly memorable dinner. Jampacked with the usual Spanish delicacies and many unusual ones, well lubricated by cold Sangria, and surrounded by jolly Spaniards well into the wee hours. "I hadn't realized," he confesses poignantly, "that it was possible to have so much fun."

I felt much the same on several occasions while in Spain. Observing the locals especially one Sunday afternoon in some lazy street where food and drink and fountains and convents and babies etc. were all around, everyone in high spirits. "These Spaniards!" I thought enviously. I thought the same during the reading of much of this book, except that the skilled Richardson never makes the mistake of romanticizing the beloved country. No, he delves into the hard times, the heart wrenching days of the Civil War and the dictatorship, but with a spare and empathetic hand. The old timers telling those stories come alive in the pages, and surely and skilfully, our good author leads the topic back to food and eating.

What a lovely read! I am tempted to buy a copy so it can adorn my shelves, high praise indeed. And of course it landed straight in the Favorites 2023 collection too. Now, onto others by my new hero, perhaps the one detailing his worldwide journey in search of chocolate. ( )

A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain by Paul Richardson (2008)