The latest addition to my website is Radwa Ashour‘s ثلاثية غرناطة (Granada Trilogy). This tells the story of an extended Arab family who, at the beginning of the book are living in Granada from the fall of Granada in 1492 to the expulsion of the Arabs just over a century later. At the beginning there is a thriving population with a strong sense of community, many engaged in the decorative arts, religious, but not extremists and, for the most part, decent, honest, honourable people. The Castilians, as they are called, promise them that many of their rights will be preserved but, as soon as they move in, these rights, including clothing, language, religion and culture are gradually eroded, often forcibly. The Spanish Inquisition, with all of its horrors are at the forefront. We briefly meet Christopher Columbus and soon the Spanish are colonising the Americas. One of the Arab family goes there and sees that the Spanish are even more ruthless with the native population than they are in Granada. There are revolts and a couple of our extended family get involved but these are cruelly put down and more rights taken away. By the end – the mass deportation linked above, most are nominally Christian, speaking Spanish and, at least in public, behaving like Spaniards, even if they are called Arab dogs. Ashour tells an excellent story and leaves us in no doubt who the good ones and who the bad ones.