Spain has always been a second home to me – somewhere that I visited innumerable times during my childhood when I came to visit my mother, who has lived here for forty years.

During that time, I saw only a superficial land that seemed dedicated solely to tourism. Like so many people, I neither saw nor encountered the complexities and depths of a society emerging from the gloom of a long dictatorship.

For the past five years I have lived and worked permanently in Spain whilst raising my family. This experience has allowed me to integrate with the Spanish on an array of different levels from living in a tiny mountain pueblo to conducting business, day to day, on both a local and national basis.

In between, I have investigated, amongst other things, corruption scandals, political matters, the Spanish use of brothels and the stress and strains that have given Spain the highest divorce rate of any country in Europe.

The closer that I have looked at Spain the more fascinating I have found the country. Below the surface of a joyously nuclear society lies a land in turmoil. Spain is now second only to the United States for net immigration and is still coming to terms with its explosively successful economy. In the brief span of thirty years the country has changed radically from an old fashioned macho society to one that now has some of the most liberal laws in the world.

Spain faces many challenges - which makes the future engrossing and an understanding of the past vital. Can the country continue to preserve its identity and its precious close knit communities with their traditional values? What will happen if the economy goes into recession - given the debt laden position of most of the population? Will Spanish men adjust to the new equality that their women folk expect? It is questions like this that make investigative writing so interesting.

Meanwhile, of course, on a lighter note I think it is vital to express the wonder and sheer fun inherent in living in Spain. Rarely have I laughed so much or been so enchanted by the kindness of a people whose qualities of tolerance and fun I have grown to love – all within a kaleidoscopic country filled with a profound culture, tremendous mountains, great cities, wonderful beaches and a fascinating and beautiful hinterland…