I’ve been listening to John Simpson’s fantastic A War of Words on Radio 4 this week. It’s about how leftie/rightie/war correspondent journalists reported on the Spanish Civil War at the time. I’ve always loved reading about civil wars, how they come about and the aftermath lingering on to the present, but realised I knew little about the Spanish one, even though it drew many of my own countrymen to fight the “good” fight in the international brigade.

Has anyone read a good book on the SCW that he or she would recommend?

here you go

Have you read them Philly?

maybe, maybe not.

i’ve read a lot of things in my time.

I’ve enjoyed Beevor’s The Battle for Spain but cherry picked certain chapters rather reading from start to finish.

Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett was also good but not about the civil war specifically and also covers more contemporary issues and the history behind them.

If you read both of those you’ll really understand why some parts of Spain really hate others and how they are as bad as us Brits with our sectarian troubles.

Would include Orwell’s ‘Homage to Catalonia’ and in fiction Hemingway’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’.

Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremlett was also good but not about the civil war specifically and also covers more contemporary issues and the history behind them.

I read this and quite enjoyed it.
Where are you planning on going?

Where are you planning on going?

😕

Not planning on going, just want to read about it.

Has anyone read Laurie Lee’s “As I walked out…”?

Thanks for the suggestions so far though.

The Beevor book is pretty hard going especially at the beginning. It’s the only one I’ve read on the subject but I’d recommend a more concise book first….

My bad, it sounded like a pre-visit bit of research. It’s still a bit of a political hot potato and fresh in the minds of some.