Shades of the Alhambra

'This old dreamy place,' as Washington Irving called it, is surely one of the loveliest buildings in the world. With its superb gardens, courtyards and fountains, it has inspired writers, architects, designers, artist and musicians. Almost immediately after the expulsion of the Moors in 1492 by the Catholic Kings, Fernando and Isabel, it become the place of legend, chivalry and romance. Yet the architects of the Alhambra were regarded as usurpers from the moment the first Muslim army set foot in Spain in AD 711. Raleigh Trevelyan's elegant text and wealth of illustrations tell the story of the conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada and the effect the Alhambra has had on the imagination over the centuries.