There must be 400 books a year written about Paris. From what I could tell, when I arrived in Portugal in 2018, there seemed to have been one written in English about my new home. Published nine years before I arrived. There happened to be more, I discovered once I started delving deeper. A travel account from the turn of the 20th century, and an extraordinarily detailed account of the Portuguese, their history and culture, that I found in a second-hand bookstore in Lagos, but which had been out of print for forty years.

It seemed strange given how many English speakers were arriving in the country. It seemed even stranger seven years later, when the predominant language in some parts of the country – for better or worse – seemed to be English. Which was one of the reasons I chose to write Meet the Tugas - the time just seemed ripe! Though not the primary reason.

Besides giving me an excuse to travel from north to south, vineyard to castle, Spanish border to Madeira, writing this book let me uncover the history of a country which (contiguously) was almost twice as long as Spain’s and double again that of Germany’s. Though of course, a history that extended back further still into the mists of time, when Neolithic people were roaming across the Alentejan plains, leaving behind their marker stones, building what we assume were astronomical monumental calendars, and mass burying their families.

Credits: Supplied Image; Author: Client; Me at the Batalha Monastery

This country, I discovered, had a history that didn’t just span world changing events, but was often on the receiving end of them and in some cases, leading their charge. A small country that should have had a small history, but – to use that English expression – seemed to punch above its weight.

It took four years to uncover and write that history, four years of watching wild bulls be tackled, peering into hidden Templar castles, four years to climb volcanoes and descend grottos, to feel the grandeur of the 17th century and the tragedies of the 18th and 19th. Four years to compress thousands of years of history, of stories, of anecdotes and myths, into 328 pages. Into Meet the Tugas which is available now online and in bookstores across the country.