A very personal journey brought flamenco star Maria Pagés home to Seville

Flamenco is known for capturing the spirit and passion of a nation, but when María Pagés created her dynamic dance show, Sevilla, she took a very personal approach. For Pagés, Seville is home - the place where she grew up, found her love of dancing and, despite spending much of her time on the road, the place to which she always returns. All of which she poured into Sevilla.

When ceramicist Elisabeth Corberó bought Mas Perdu, she fell in love with its history and devoted herself to restoring it with an eye firmly on the traditional

Mas Perdut is a farm with a 300-year history, in Ampurdán, Girona. It was built in the 1700's and is an example of a typical farmer's house, surrounded by the fields of maize and hay that still fulfil their original purpose, and bordered by the River Ter. Its name, which has followed it since it was built, means ‘lost farm’ and alludes to the labyrinth of paths that one has to follow in order to reach Mas Perdut’s tucked-away location in the rural landscape.

Londoners Bash and Paulette Robinson found their perfect lifestyle in a villa near Marbella.

It’s a Friday afternoon in January, and having flown into Malaga on the first BA flight out of Heathrow, Bash Robinson has just got back from a walk on the beach with his wife Paulette, children Oscar, Evie, Lochie and Maddie, and their two dogs, Joey and Flo.  Flushed from the sea air, which today has a mild bite to it, he settles down in the spacious garden of his recently acquired five-bedroom home and starts talking about the family’s move to Spain.

He may be the 9th Sexiest Man Alive according to People magazine, but Javier Bardem would rather let his work speak for itself

If there were an Oscar for worst haircut, Javier Bardem would snag it for his role in the Coen Brothers’ new thriller, No Country for Old Men. Playing the ruthless psychotic Anton Chigurh, who will stop at nothing to retrieve $2 million that’s been stolen from him by a foolhardy Texan (Josh Brolin), Bardem had to live with an unflattering side-parting-cum-comb-over for three months during the shoot.
“I guess the haircut helped us show that this man is insane but also normal,” he says. “But it’s hard to wake up and see yourself…taking a shower, you go, ‘Oh my God! I forgot it was me!’”

Adrian Day and his partner Mark Florko can’t seem to stop themselves from taking on big projects, like their current quirky home near Ronda

When Adrian Day sold his estate agency in Bath and headed off to southern Spain with partner Mark Florko, the idea was to take life a little easier: long lunches, siestas, sundowners on the terrace – that sort of thing. The last thing the couple planned when they moved to Ronda was embarking on a series of restorations, but, four years later, they are finally close to finishing work on the third property they have made over since leaving Britain.

The most important thing you can give a child is a good education, but what do you do when the public system is letting kids down?

As in the UK, and probably in other countries as well, middle-class parents in Spain who consider themselves to be "progressive" are being faced with a dilemma: their principles tell them their children should be educated in the public system, but with the public system in such a mess, they are being forced (though of course its their choice) to pay for a private education.