MANZANILLAS AND MAGIC

IT was with a sense of coming home that I arrived back in Spain a few weeks ago and, in particular, my favourite region of Andalucia.

I first arrived in this country 25 years ago almost to the day and have now set up home again near Sotogrande.

After finishing university, I had headed out into the desert in North Africa to begin my career as a writer, aged 21, and after three months I travelled back to Europe to visit friends on the Costa del Sol, taking a boat from Algeria to Algeciras.

After three days of travel, following 90 days of dry (in both senses of the word) dunes, I arrived in the leafy gardens by the Alcazar in Sevilla.

There I was greeted by flamenco dresses spinning out Sevillanas in the warm summer night as a guitarist strummed and a bar served ice cold Cruzcampo. In the heat of Sevilla, I always retreat into Casa Matías on Calle Arfe to write – I’ve written about it in two books and in newspapers from the Financial Times to Daily Mail – although it was not me who discovered it. It was actually one of my oldest friends, actor Hugh Dancy, who

At Home With Xander

In his inaugural summer column for the Olive Press, UK society page regular Alexander Fiske-Harrison on nights out in Ronda with Claire Danes and ‘coming home’ to Spain joined me in Sevilla fresh from his own North African adventure in his first starring role in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down and, speaking Spanish, he quickly found the best bar in town.

Hugh went on to great things, from being nominated for an Emmy opposite Helen Mirren in Tom Hooper’s Elizabeth I and most recently starred as Detective Will Graham in the series Hannibal opposite our friend, the Dane, Mads Mik- kelsen, the best of all Bond villains, who now lives in Mallorca. My fondest memories are of when he joined me here in Spain in 2009 with his wife Claire Danes on the heels of their wedding in France and they visited again to meet my polo player fiancée Klarina (that’s why we’re in Soto) in what turned out to be our last social engagement before COVID-19 lockdown. (They were also coincidentally the first friends I saw after lockdown when Claire was filming The Essex Serpent with Tom Hiddleston.) However, it is not the celluloid blockbusters or art house gems which have been the backdrops to my favourite stories of these meet-ups around the world.

Actors seem to have much more fun when working on projects destined not to do so well. Hence my fond memories of nights out in Dublin with Hugh and Mads and his Swedish pal Stellan Skarsgård, the charming Kiera Knightley and the legendary Ray Winstone – fresh from his extraordinary turn in Sexy Beast as a retired gangster on the Costa del Sol (actually filmed in Almeria). The last time we were together with Hugh and Claire was with financier friends in Ronda. The Olive Press had earlier covered their honeymoon in Gaucin, but the newspaper wasn’t there in Ronda, when we spent a lazy afternoon knocking back manzanillas and Ronda tintos over tapas telling old Hollywood tales at the once-famous De Locos Tapas. Nobody knew there were two Hollywood stars in town, and nobody bothered us, just as they didn’t when the King and Queen of Sweden recently came to visit, or Bill Gates had a dirty weekend (I assume), so anonymous and undisturbed is life in that ancient mountain redoubt.

It’s exactly why I was back last weekend, writing about the town for the Telegraph: only heaven can have a bridge which looks down so far...

While De Locos is no longer

OP Puzzle solutions

Quick Crossword

Across: 6 Impressionist, 8 Peerage, 9 Rabbi, 10 Thin, 11 Concrete, 15 Aberdeen, 16 Stud, 19 Value, 21 Chapati, 22 Lackadaisical.

Down: 1 Appetite, 2 Repay, 3 Isle, 4 Correct, 5 Limb, 6 Input, 7 Trice, 12 One, 13 Entrance, 14 Adrenal, 15 Anvil, 17 Drill, 18 Gassy, 20 Luck, 21 Coat.

there, in its place is a fine spot, Barrafino, where I drank finos and ate fabulous steak, before taking a walk around the wonderful casco histórico that hasn’t changed one iota. Next stop is Pamplona, where I am heading with Ernest Hemingway’s grandson John, with whom I co-authored a book. I hope to match my feet against the fighting bulls of Miura, Domecq and the other names that inspire dread amongst a certain Spanish crowd.

I know some readers will hate that, but as I have always said, you can always come and berate me to my face… at 8am on calle Estafeta on July 7. But tread carefully, the bulls may disagree with both of us.