Going Native in Tenerife – The front cover

It’s funny; you think that once you’ve written the text for a book that all the hard work’s done – wrong. Then comes the first proof reading and the re-checking of phone numbers, websites addresses, facts and figures etc and choosing potential photographs which illustrate the Tenerife that Going Native in Tenerife wants people to know about, not always the Tenerife which tour operators necessarily want to push.

To be honest, this part isn’t hard work, but it is time consuming especially when you’ve got a catalogue of thousands of photographs built up over the last few years to choose from. Part of this job involved identifying potential covers for the book; Debbie Jenkins and Joe Gregory’s (editors and publishers at NativeSpain and bookshaker) main criteria was to choose some which had people in them.

No problem, we had loads from various fiestas which perfectly illustrated the real Tenerife which most residents know. We posted a selection onto flickr and waited to see which Joe would pick; whether it would be our favourite.

However, Joe completely surprised us by choosing a photo in my flickr collection which we hadn’t included, but as soon as we saw which one he’d chosen we knew he’d hit the nail right on the head in capturing the essence of Tenerife.
It was taken at a traditional fiesta and to me represents what Tenerife is all about; a wonderful climate and a serious pride in maintaining age-old traditions whilst enjoying life to the fullest at the same time.

If you can identify where the photo was taken and what the event is…well you won’t win any prize, except the kudos of being somebody who knows the real Tenerife