Inspiring Locations

Well, here I am again, back where it all really started. I am staying in Nerja which is the place which inspired me to start writing again. It was that first holiday here, when there was an explosion on the hillside which made it smoke, and made the police, fire engines and ambulance rush up the hill. That year it rained in August and it never rains in August. The next day the lime-washed villas were covered in a spider’s web of sand. Two days later, the sea started moving to the west. Then we visited the well-known Nerja caves which are actually situated at Maro. All of this told me the story of “Jason’s Crystal”. It was significant, too, that that year the children ran out of things to read whilst we were on holiday. I was forced to write. I achieved a thousand words a day, which produced the chapter for that night’s bedtime story.

I had always wanted to be a writer, but I was then just one of those people who said “One day I’m going to write a book.” Of course, it doesn’t actually happen unless you make it happen. I gradually have now.

Nerja is a fantastic place. We’ve been going there since 1988. Anyone we know who’s been there just keeps going back. It has changed in that time and it has become much smarter, but the change has been gradual and not too violent. There are some sadnesses. The market closed some years ago. The Belgian butcher we have used for years has changed hands since we were last here two years ago. The greengrocer retired that year too and the shop has become a clothes shop which is also now closing down. But many things remain - our favourite beach restaurant and the old men who sit under the lemon trees on the market square for instance.

I dined out last night with a couple who live a little further along the coast. She is local and comes from Malaga. Nerja was the place of her childhood, because a TV series was based here. Rich adventures happened in Nerja in a TV series called “Verano Azul”. I am not surprised.