Paperback. Pub the Date: November 2001 Pages: 208 in Publisher by: Orion Publishing. Written in. the same tradition as John Julius of Norwich's engrossing accounts of Venice and Byzantium. Richard Fletcher's a perfect blend of Moorish Spain entertains even as it enlightens. Of He tells down - to - earth stories about the story of a vital period in Spanish history which transformed the culture and society. not only of Spain. but of the rest of Europe as well. Moorish influence transformed the architecture. art. literature and learning and Fletcher combines this analysis with a crisp account of the wars. politics and sociological changes of the time. 'Richard Fletcher makes a winding and wonderfully evocative journey through Spanish history ... His mastery of his sources is hardly less remarkable than his vivid. almost physical grasp of the Spain he describes' The Economist