Sign up to get updates from us
Jean Roberts yearned for a home in Spain, but her husband, Adrian, was not so keen on the idea. He was content living full-time in their home in England. Finally, he agreed, contingent upon the property being 30,000 euros or less believing Jean would never be able to meet the challenge. Adrian underestimated Jean’s desire to live, at least part-time, in Spain as she purchased a fixer-upper townhouse in a countryside town in Seville Province. Find out more about the couple's Spanish adventures on Episode 128 of Retire There with Gil & Gene.
Jean Roberts’ two lighthearted and uplifting books about moving to and living in Spain: A Kiss Behind the Castanets: My Love Affair with Spain and Life Beyond the Castanets: My Love Affair with Spain.
Jean captures their life in Spain on her website.
Author
Jean Roberts was born in London and raised in Romford, a large town east of London. In 1977, she moved to Colchester, England, a town in the County of Essex in southeast England. She attended college at University Campus Suffolk in Ipswich, England. After a string of dead-end office jobs, she trained and became a social worker, specializing in child protection, a job she loved for 20 years until she took early retirement. Then she took on part-time work for an agency assessing foster parents. Jean also volunteered part-time for ten years for a children's charity and served on its board of trustees. When she gave that up, Adrian, her husband, also retired so they both stopped working simultaneously.
Jean considers herself a “cautiously negative optimist.” Nowadays, she spends a lot of time enjoying her family in a way she wasn't able to when she was working. She travels as much as possible and likes to read, write, and cook.
Jean has written two books about moving to Spain: 1. A Kiss Behind the Castanets: My Love affair with Spain and 2. Life Beyond the Castanets: My Love Affair with Spain. She also blogs about her life in Spain on her website JeanRoberts.me.uk.
Adrian Roberts was born in Huntingdon, England and grew up on a farm in a tiny village in Yelling, England. When he was 12 the family moved to another farm in the beautiful village of Dedham, in Essex, which was made famous by the paintings of John Constable. Then they moved to Colchester and that’s where Adrian met Jean.
Adrian's first job was in a boatyard as a general and marine engineer where he completed an apprenticeship. Thereafter, he worked for an engineering company in Ipswich for many years. He then started his own company and was managing director until 2017 at which time he sold his business and retired early.
As a young man, Adrian was the bass player in a rock band. His retirement goal was to learn to play a 6 string electric guitar. He practices every day and has a weekly lesson. He collects and makes guitars. So far he has 12, 3 of which he made himself, and a ukulele. He is also interested in computers. When he is not in front of the screen, he shuffles off to his music chair to play his guitar.
