Lost Paradise - The Story of Granada

The essential history of an iconic European city, by Cambridge academic Elizabeth Drayson.
''An admirable achievement... [Drayson has] expertise as a scholar and command as a storyteller'' BBC History Magazine

''A glittering homage to one of the world''s most beautiful and storied cities'' Dan Jones

''Beauty built on blood and brutality... A fascinating new tome'' Daily Mail

From the early Middle Ages to the present, foreign travellers have been bewitched by Granada''s peerless beauty. The Andalusian city is also the stuff of story and legend, with an unforgettable history to match. Romans, then Visigoths, settled here, as did a community of Jews; in the eleventh century a Berber chief made Granada his capital, and from 1230 until 1492 the Nasrids - Spain''s last Islamic dynasty - ruled the emirate of Granada from their fortress-palace of the Alhambra. After capturing the city to complete the Christian Reconquista, the Cath