Chris Stewart (Author)

Chris Stewart (born March 27, 1951 in Crawley , Sussex , England ) is an English author who describes his life as a farmer in the Spanish Alpujarras , a region in the province of Granada , where he together with his wife Ana and daughter Chloë lives.

In the 2007 regional election in Órgiva , in which he ran for a green party, he received 201 votes (around 8%).

He was a founding member of the British rock band Genesis , in which he played drums in 1967/68 .

Musician

Stewart attended the Charterhouse School in Godalming , England from 1964 . In 1966 he worked as a drummer for the band "The Garden Wall" of his schoolmates Peter Gabriel (vocals and flute) and Tony Banks (keyboards). Soon afterwards the musicians merged with the school band "Anon" of guitarists Anthony Phillips and Mike Rutherford to form the group later known as Genesis .

Stewart played on the first two Genesis singles The Silent Sun / That's Me and A Winter's Tale / One-Eyed Hound , released in February and May 1968, respectively, under the aegis of Jonathan King . He cannot be heard on the other previously published Genesis material from the early days (fourth CD of Archive I - 1967–1975 ).

In the summer of 1968 he was kicked out of the band on the initiative of Jonathan King. He later received a severance payment of £ 300 in return for which he waived his rights to the early recordings. In an interview, Stewart said that he experienced the expulsion as so traumatic that he still cannot remember the moment when Anthony Phillips brought him the message. For the upcoming Genesis debut album, Stewart was replaced by John Silver . After graduating from high school, he played in a two-man circus orchestra for some time before starting to learn flamenco guitar for private purposes in Seville , Spain .

Further life

Until he settled down in Andalusia, Chris Stewart's life story was shaped by numerous trips and odd jobs that he took on along the way. He worked, among other things, in French viticulture and in Spanish orange plantations. Through his travels, he also acquired a wide range of language skills, including Spanish, French, German and Chinese. For the English travel book publisher Rough Guides , he traveled to Spain , the People's Republic of China and Turkey . In Dallas , Texas , he obtained his small aircraft pilot's license. It was not until his training as a sheep shearer in Sussex , England, that he secured a more or less regular income, with which he mainly made a living for his family until his success as an author.

Books

Driving Over Lemons

In 1999 Stewart's first book Driving Over Lemons with the subtitle "An Optimist in Andalucía" came on the market, which was also published in German in 2001 under the title Unter den Zitronenbauten . It tells in a humorous and self-deprecating way about his arrival in Spain, the acquisition of the half-dilapidated farm "El Valero", which he renovated for himself and his wife with the help of locals, and of the arduous life without electricity, running water and access road. It also portrays the beauty of the landscape and the peculiarities of the sometimes eccentric but also lovable locals.

On the back of the book, Peter Gabriel wrote: “An idyllic life in a secluded and sunny place in Europe is a 'fantasy' that normally breaks in hard realities and is then discarded. Chris is cut from a different cloth. 'Driving Over Lemons' is a wonderful account of his Andalusian adventure. "

The book, for which Stewart received the British Book Prize as the best young author, also became an international bestseller. The English original title refers to the fact that there are often lemon-smeared paths in Andalusia, such as B. in Central Europe in some rural areas the cider fruit is on the road when it is ripe, where it is carelessly run over.

A Parrot in the Pepper Tree

In 2002 Stewart's second book A Parrot in the Pepper Tree was published , the German title Ein Parroti im Pfefferbaum . On the one hand, this book is a continuation of the first book, but on the other hand it also offers a journey through time into Stewart's past: From his own school days and his commitment to Genesis to the further stages of life before settling in Andalusia to his success as a book author.

This book was also back on the bestseller lists. The title refers to a budgie , not a parrot in the narrower sense, which flew to the family one day and has since then had its self-chosen domicile on the farm.

The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society

In 2006, Stewart published his third book, The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society , again sort of a sequel to the first two books. As with the second book, the author decided not to put the stories in chronological order. The colorfully mixed memories of his life in Spain this time also contain more recent events: Stewart has used the financial independence resulting from the success of his books to get involved in social and local politics, for example with an association for newly arriving foreign workers in Spain.

The "Almond Blossom Appreciation Association" mentioned in the book's title is a joke expression for those closer friends of Stewart who can also actively enjoy the beauty of the landscape away from the associated work on long hikes.

Three Ways to Capsize a Boat

After Stewart had contributed a two-page essay about his time in the band to the Genesis biography “Chapter & Verse” (2007) , another autobiographical work by the author was published in 2009 with Three Ways to Capsize a Boat , subtitled “An Optimist Afloat” . This time it's all about sailing .

Last Days of the Bus Club

In June 2014 the last book so far was published with the ironic subtitle "The Fourth Book in the Driving Over Lemons Trilogy". It again contains a wide variety of autobiographical but not chronologically structured anecdotes in loose context.

Web links

• Literature by and about Chris Stewart in the catalog of the German National Library
• Chris Stewart (English)
• Biography (English)
• News Archive
• Driving Over Lemons (English)