A sparky, witty and thoroughly enjoyable memoir of a girl who fell in love with flamenco dance and with Spain.
A foot-stamping, full-on firecracker of a travel memoir, crackling with energy, dance, gypsies, love, food and the occasional donkey.
Nellie Bennett fell in love with flamenco one hot summer day in a Sydney dance studio. Longing to get closer to the authentic experience, she packed her suede dance shoes and a set of castanets and travelled to the other side of the world, to Seville, to learn flamenco.
What she didn't realise is that flamenco is not a dance, it's a way of life.
In Spain, she fell in love three times - the first time with a smokey-eyed flamenco dance teacher, the second time, with a wild and tempestuous gypsy; and the third with a tall, dark handsome Basque chef - not realising that, all along, it's really Spain she's fallen in love with.
A witty, passionate story of romance and discovery.
Nellie Bennett grew up in Sydney, Australia. After completing high school she worked as a shop girl in a department store, where she learnt ironing technique and gift-wrapping.
Nellie moved to Spain in her early twenties to learn flamenco dance. She spent the following four years living in Madrid, where she learnt to dance flamenco from the Spanish gypsies.
Nellie has contributed feature articles to The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is currently studying Arabic and trying to learn how to read a map in order to fulfil her dream of crossing the Sahara by camel.