My Reign in Spain – Michael Giddings

Spain, January 1974. In the dying days of General Franco’s dictatorship Michael Giddings travels from a small town deep in rural England to Madrid to take up a post teaching English to the locals at a private language institute. He plans to stay for six months before going up to university in Oxford. His experiences with a colourful cast of characters as he adapts to his new life form an hilarious narrative: strange and eccentric pupils, flatmates and new acquaintances populate his story against the backdrop of a society on the brink of change -all set amid the varied land- scapes of Spain.

He discovers not only much about himself and his ability to survive alone but also about the adult world which he has now joined – a world where not everything can be taken at face value and complicated emotions and relationships intrude into his simple and naïve world picture.