From an early age, Glyn has always been fascinated by history. After a career which involved huge volumes of professional reading, Glyn longed to read for pleasure. Originally from Britain, Glyn spent 12 years in Hong Kong before moving to Portugal in retirement. Intrigued by the complex cultural influences that have led to the multifaceted Portugal of the 21st century, Glyn saw the need for an easy to assimilate text which would inform about the origins and derivation of language, art forms, architecture, foods and beliefs. Today, Portugal's economic growth is sustained by immigrants - these new to the country and the language will find a wealth of informative material presented bilingually in English and Portuguese - to facilitate growth in linguistic ability as well as assimilation of cultural knowledge. Even Portuguese speakers from the Lusophone world, and dare I say Portuguese natives, will find much of interest in this concise history of Portugal.