The tale of the British family who ran a hostel in 1970s Nerja

When Robert Edwards' parents decided to sell up in the UK and move to Spain in the early 1970s to start a family-run hostel, the then 20-year-old didn't think twice about joining them.

"I was young and single and loved Spain as we had been on a number of family holidays," he explains.

The youngest of four siblings, Robert's older brother also moved out with his wife and two young children, but his two sisters, who by then had children in school and jobs, chose to stay in England.

The family had first discovered the Costa del Sol when they holidayed in Marbella in the 1960s. So taken by the area, Robert's father Jimmy, a bookkeeper by trade, purchased a plot of land in the town with a view to building a house to which he would retire.

However, in the early 1970s the family was introduced to Nerja, which even then, Robert says, had a very different feel from the other, already more developed, side of Malaga province.

"To cut a long story short", explains Robert, the family swapped the land in Marbella for a penthouse in Nerja but then identified a business opportunity in 1972 with a hostel on Calle Alejandro Bueno which was under construction. The Fontainebleau Hostel eventually opened its doors in 1974.

The family settled on the name The Fontainebleau for the hostel as the building had a patio with a fountain. They were also inspired by its namesake, the famous hotel in Miami, Florida, which has appeared in many films including James Bond - Goldfinger as well as Scarface and The Bodyguard.

Robert reveals that his parents had "zilch experience" of running a hostel, although he had worked in hotels back in the UK, so as the youngest person in the family, he was the most experienced.

The family found themselves "immediately at loggerheads with oddball expats, eccentric guests, demanding tour operators, and the dreaded Guardia Civil". With family tensions rising "and bankruptcy looming", Robert describes in his book about the hostel how their only hope "was luck and a gritty determination to succeed".

In 1979 the hostel and indeed Nerja appeared on the popular British holiday programme, Wish You Were Here. Presenter Judith Chalmers also visited El Capistrano village, already home to a number of foreign residents and in particular a growing British community. Ayo, the town's legendary chiringuito (beach bar), also featured in the episode.

Robert recalls that it was impossible to watch the programme in Spain when it aired back home, so one of his sisters called the family in Nerja and held her telephone close to the television set so that they could at least hear it.

He also remembers the filming of the iconic Spanish television series, Verano Azul, which was happening at around the same time as Wish You Were Here was filming in the town.

The two events really established Nerja as a favourite holiday destination for the Spanish and British, as well as a handful of other European countries, including France, where Verano Azul was also aired.

The Edwards sold the hostel to a fellow Brit in 1980 who kept it open until 1996 when The Fontainebleau closed down for good. Robert explains that the building was eventually knocked down and Apartamentos Tobozo now occupies the site.

While some of the family returned to the UK, Robert decided to stay in Spain and he now lives in Torrox Costa. "I have seen the development of Spain," he says. The long-term resident has witnessed the rise in tourism on the Costa del Sol and remembers going to Gibraltar in the family's Rolls Royce "before Franco closed the border".

Now Robert, along with his friend and the Nerja-based British author Paul Bradley have co-written a book recalling the Edwards family's adventures, trials and tribulations while trying to open up a hostel in 1970s Nerja.

"The Fontainebleau is the result of a chance meeting during Covid" between Robert and Paul. "After two hours of chatting and many coffees in Plaza Cavana, Paul agreed to help co-write a story that I had envisaged for forty years," Robert explains.

"In 1972, smooth-talking London bookie Jimmy Edwards was horrified by the daunting prospect of a tax-grabbing socialist government. With a pioneering British spirit, he sold up and voted with his feet," the introduction starts.

"Seduced by the balmy climate and low costs, he crammed the family into the Rolls Royce and headed for Spain, still under the iron fist of a Fascist regime. Blissfully ignorant of the politics, linguistically inept and with no relevant experience, they purchased a half-finished hostel from a dodgy developer in the quaint fishing village of Nerja," it continues.

The book was published in September and Robert says he has been delighted with the reaction so far. He adds that he hopes to get it translated into Spanish at some point as many of his Spanish friends and acquaintances have asked him to do so.

Copies of The Fontainebleau are available to buy in Smiff's English bookshop in Nerja and online via Amazon.