Michael Jacobs is a writer of Irish/Italian ancestry with particular interest in Travel, History of Art, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

 and Gastronomy

Gastronomy

Gastronomy is the art or science of food eating. Also, it can be defined as the study of food and culture, with a particular focus on gourmet cuisine...

. His most successful popular work in both English and Spanish has been The Factory of Light: Tales from my Andalucian Village (2004), a true story but with a flavour of the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...

.

Writing

Jacobs' writing initially specialised in introducing Fine Art to the general reader. He has continued with these works but lately has produced books which capture the day-to-day life especially of Latin countries and relate that to an historical and political context.

To the new reader Jacobs may appear 'intellectual' or 'literary' but he has rare talent in being able to write recent works such as The Factory of Light which is close to the popular current genre of the English emigre setting up home in Southern Europe, but also books such Between Hopes and Memories which is a snapshot of Spain in the post-transition economic boom of the 1990s and classic travel writing such as the semi-autobiographical Ghost Train Through the Andes and The Andes.

Publications

• Mythological Painting (1979)
• Nude Painting in the History of Art (1979)
• Guide to European Painting (1980)
• Companion to Art and Artists in the British Isles (1980)
• The Knopf Traveler's Guides to Art: France (1984)
• Traveller's Guide to Art: Great Britain and Ireland Mitchell Beazley Traveller's Guides to Art (1984)
• Good and Simple Life: Artist Colonies in Europe and America (1985)
• A Guide to Provence (1988)
• A Guide to Andalucia (1990)
• The Road to Santiago de Compostela Architectural Guides for Travellers (1991)
• Barcelona Blue Guide (1992)
• Czechoslovakia Blue Guide (1992)
• The Most Beautiful Villages of Provence (1994)
• Madrid: Architecture, History, Art (Philip's City Guide (1992)
• Between Hopes and Memories: Spanish Journey (1994)
• The Painted Voyage: Art, Travel and Exploration, 1564-1875 (1995)
• Andalucia Pallas Guide (2003)
• In The Glow Of The Phantom Palace (2003)
• Madrid for Pleasure (2003)
• The Factory of Light: Tales From My Andalucian Village (2004)
• Alhambra (2005)
• Ghost Train Through the Andes: On My Grandfather's Trail in Chile and Bolivia (2006)
• The Andes (2010)

External links

• http://www.jasonhep.com/?p=19
• http://www.johnmurray.co.uk/Author-Listing-Michael-Jacobs--24419-J.htm