Tales of Mel The Story of an Ibizan Hound

by Don C Andrews

Overview

"Tales of Mel” tells the tale of Mel, a male Ibiza Hound puppy who was originally given as a gift to my friend Raphael Sainz, who rapidly became an aficionado, and then a breeder of this amazing canine race. Mel was not himself a pedigree animal, but was the founder of a proud pedigree line through his grand-daughter Baltasara.
This is a very special book about an individual dog (Mel), and a breed that at the time was believed to be descended from the hunting dogs of the Egyptian pharaohs. Subsequent genetic research has cast doubt on this hypothesis, but the case for an Egyptian ancestry and the link to Ibiza via the Phoenicians is elegantly laid out within these pages.
Rafael Sainz was a lawyer from Madrid, but with very close ties to Ibiza from the 1930’s onwards. He retired to Ibiza in the late 1980s, and Mel was his first Ibizan hound. The book follows Mel's life, and indeed finishes with his death. It also reveals a whole panorama of life on Ibiza before the tourist industry took over. Rafael takes us on walks, on hunting expeditions and on rambles into the often turbulent history of the island, from the first arrival of the Phoenicians through the Spanish Civil War and into the modern day. If you wish to understand the Ibizan hound, this book is essential reading.
I include a copy of the cover material. It shows a ghostly face of an Ibiza hound superimposed on one of the many Phoenician sites on the island in the shadow of the Es Vedra rock, one of Ibiza’s iconic landmarks. The history of the dog and the history of the island are inseparably intertwined.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940153810218
Publisher:	Don C Andrews
Publication date:	10/27/2016
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Don C. Andrews was the Editor of the Ibiza Now magazine (in English) from 1989-2000 and the Ibiza Heute (German) from 1992-2000. He has worked with the Diario de Ibiza newspaper on several different projects, including a daily page of news in English during one summer and the translation of the annual tourist guide into English for several years running. He has an extensive archive of photos from Ibiza.
He speaks Spanish, German, Catalan, French and occasionally tries to converse in Russian – to the bemusement of any Russian people he happens to meet. He translated the book Tales of Mel from Spanish to English, and is currently working on an online edition of this book. He has had articles published in three different languages in various Ibiza publications. He has appeared on television in Catalan and German, and taken part in various radio programmes in German and Spanish.
He had always thought somebody else would write a book about life on Ibiza in the 1980's, and is rather surprised to find that the job appears to have been left to him.
He is a fully-qualified teacher of science, but also teaches mathematics, modern languages, computing and other subjects too numerous to mention. He is currently working as a teacher of mathematics.
Chilling out in Ibiza is his first full-length book, although a second one is already in the pipeline, and he is currently preparing a work on the joys of desktop publishing in Ibiza. He looks forward one day to publishing a book featuring some of the works of his friend Nito Verdera about the explorer Cristobál Colón, who, he believes was born on Ibiza.
When not writing or teaching, Don enjoys reading in English, Spanish and German, long walks in the countryside, bird watching, taking part in quizzes, cookery and playing the guitar. He hopes to visit Ibiza more frequently if his literary career takes off.