The Snow Gypsy(101)

She went to live in Spain’s Alpujarras region in the decade following the Second World War with her young son Rafik. Her daughter, Luz, was born there. Nieve’s near-death from typhus in The Snow Gypsy is based on Juliette’s successful treatment of Luz, who almost died as a baby from the disease.

Like the fictional Rose, Juliette had a brother who was killed after enlisting as a soldier. Many other incidents in the novel reflect Juliette’s real-life experiences. Those who wish to distinguish fact from fiction might like to read the autobiographical books she wrote. The ones I particularly drew on were As Gypsies Wander (1953) and Spanish Mountain Life (1955).

In her later years Juliette gave workshops in the United States on herbal medicine and became known there as “the grandmother of the herbal renaissance.” Growing interest in her ideas and her unusual life has led to several of her books coming back into print, including Common Herbs for Natural Health (originally published in 1974), which provided useful material for The Snow Gypsy.

I have Chris Stewart’s Driving Over Lemons (1999) to thank for bringing Juliette to my attention. When he and his wife took on a remote farm in the Alpujarras in the 1990s, her Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable (1952) was their go-to resource for dealing with sick animals.

In my thinking and writing about Spain, I have been particularly influenced by Giles Tremlett’s excellent analysis of Civil War secrets, Ghosts of Spain (2006). Gerald Brenan’s South from Granada (1957) provided fascinating details about the way of life in the Alpujarras in the first half of the last century. Jason Webster’s Duende (2003) and Sacred Sierra (2009) gave me an insight into the world of flamenco and the timeless customs of rural Spain.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’m grateful to all my friends in Spain for their encouragement during the writing of The Snow Gypsy and for the insights they gave into a country that still has so many buried secrets. Particular thanks to Christina Aldridge and Loli Mu?oz, who were kind enough to correct my very poor Spanish.

Thank you to Jodi Warshaw and everyone at Lake Union for the wonderful job they do and to my editor, Christina Henry de Tessan, for her perceptive suggestions.

Huge thanks to my friend Janet Thomas for her inspiration, her wise advice, and the many happy lunches we have had over the years.

Finally, I have my close family to thank: Mum and Dad for their unflagging enthusiasm; my children, Ciaran, Ruth, Isabella, and Deri, for making me laugh and helping me negotiate the minefield of modern technology; Steve, my husband, for his constant good humor, even at absurd hours of the morning, and for all the fun we’ve had exploring Spain together.