Duende

£7.99

When Jason Webster heads off for Spain in search of “duende”, the intense emotional state - part ecstasy, part desperation - so intrinsic to flamenco, he has no idea what to expect.

What he finds is a kaleidoscope of experience and excitement: From the tyranny of his guitar teacher, practising for hours on end until his fingers bleed to his passionate affair with Lola, a flamenco dancer (and older woman) married to the gun-toting Vicente, which causes him to flee Alicante in fear of his life.

In Madrid, he falls in with Gypsies and meets the imperious Jesus. Joining their dislocated, cocaine-fuelled world, stealing cars by night and sleeping away the days in tawdry rooms, he finds himself spiralling self-destructively downawards.

It is only when he arrives in Grenada bruised and battered, after two years total immersion in the flamenco lifestyle, that he is able to put his obsession into context.