'It made me want to applaud, it made me want to cry, it made me want to move to Spain' Elizabeth Gilbert

As heard on Radio 4 Book of the Week.

In the medieval Castilian village of Guzmán (population: 80), villagers have gathered for centuries in the 'telling room' to share stories and drink the local wine. It was here, in the summer of 2000, that Michael Paterniti found himself listening to a compelling tale about a cheese made from an ancient family recipe that was reputed to be among the finest in the world. Until, Ambrosio said, things had gone horribly wrong.

Hooked on the story, Paterniti relocated his young family to the tiny hilltop village to find out more. But like many Spanish villages, Guzmán was rife with gossip and old feuds, secret alliances and plotted vengeance and before long Paterniti was sucked into the heart of an unfolding mystery. When he learned that the cheesemaker had apparently plotted to murder his closest friend, the village began to spill its long-held secrets, and Paterniti found himself implicated in ways he never expected . . .

"Sun-baked highland plateaus, argumentative village rustics and beguiling old ways . . . There's no resisting the infectious glee" - * New York Times *

"A masterly, joyous piece of non-fiction storytelling . . . a strangely gripping and moving tale about life, love, friendship, family, place - and cheese" - * Financial Times *

"Gripping" - * Sunday Telegraph *

"Few writers can write about the taste of food with Paterniti's vibrancy and precision... [He] is a master of finding and telling great stories (the finding, for most writers, often being as difficult as the telling) that appear to be about something small, such as cheese, but are actually about something far larger-in this case, the whole of human existence... As much as The Telling Room is about a Spaniard's quest to create a cheese that embodies all the love and pain and joy he's ever known, it's also the story of a writer's quest to channel that obsession into the perfect story" - * Esquire *

"This is a story not only of physical but emotional and spiritual hunger, the yearning to make something from love to be shared - whether food or words - and passed on to future generations . . . It's a book that is, like the cheese Paterniti searches for, 'made with love' - and one that readers will in turn love" - * Metro *

"Throughout this book, lovingly-prepared food and drink and storytelling are inextricably linked as essential foundation stones of a community and, ultimately, society itself . . . Paterniti has arrived at truths that are universal" - * Herald *

"A wonderful, enthusiastic and idiosyncratic tale" - * Big Issue *

"Rich and shaggy, full of Castilian-size detours, it is a travelogue, food adventure, and personal memoir rolled into one hugely likable book... In [The] Telling Room, Paterniti proves that the hardest quarry as a journalist is not the extraordinary, but the everyday" - * Boston Globe *

"Unforgettable . . . a must-read for all who think of Spain as magical, who consider cheese as the ultimate gift of love, who love stories of betrayal, despair, revenge and redemption" - * Wall Street Journal *

"Paterniti dives deeply into Spain's political history, the pleasures of craft, and the motives and methods of storytelling itself" - * Harper's *

"Not just a book about Spain and its food, but an investigation into the art of narrative itself" - * Condé Nast Traveller *

"As this witty narrative proves, there's far more to a slice of cheese than first meets the tastebuds" - * Easyjet Traveller *

"A thoroughly enticing read" - * Bath Life *