Jason Heppenstall

The Olive Press Jason Heppenstall

It's 2005 and Jason Heppenstall is trying to forget the violent start to his new life in Spain - so setting up a newspaper in an oddball town in the mountains south of Granada seems like just the ticket. But with no journalism skills and no experience of running a newspaper it's touch and go right from the start. The Olive Press and its ragtag band of writers certainly causes a stir when it arrives on the scene, with its 'green' outlook and its stance against corruption. But it isn't long before trouble surfaces and it's a struggle for survival for the fledgling newspaper as it joins in the fight to stop the destruction of an ancient forest, and gets into a spat with a miscreant British politician that turns out to have huge ramifications. Set around Orgiva in the beautiful Alpujarra region of Andalucia, this is the often absurd and sometimes shocking story of how one of Spain's most popular English language newspapers came to be. Be warned, however, The Olive Press - News From the Land of the Misfits will have you either laughing out loud or choking on your tapas - not your average Spanish memoir.