Everything Passes, Everything Remains

A blend of travel writing and memoir that follows in the footsteps of the great commentators of Spain: Laurie Lee, Gerald Brenan and Richard Ford; Strong public interest in the affairs of both Spain and Scotland and the questions they face around nationhood; Dolan is a multi-award-winning and well-connected author, poet, scriptwriter and playwright, often adapting and translating from Spanish as well as scripting for other authors.

Everything Passes, Everything Remains takes us freewheelin' through Spain, song and memory as Chris Dolan documents his lifelong journey from Glasgow to Valencia. Along the way Dolan explores Spain's history, and future, through stories of the great writers before him and the friends around him.How would any of us feel if we could meet our teenage selves, a ghost on the road? Everything Passes, Everything Remains is a confluence of journeys, made by Chris Dolan, his friends, and writers before him. It’s a bit about cycling, a bit about walking, and a bit about buses. It’s a kind of travelogue, over time, and through some lesser-known parts of Spain. It’s an obsession with Spain’s writers and its history, from the Inquisition to the Civil War to the questions it faces as a country today. What makes a nation, or a family for that matter, or a group of friends? In many ways it’s as much about Dolan’s native Scotland as Spain. But mostly, it’s about the highs and lows of growing up and growing older – how the past plays merry hell with the present. About friendship, loss, music, memory, and the demons that follow us as we try to make sense of our history and our place in the world.