I Am Spain: The Spanish Civil War & the Men & Women who went to Fight Fascism (2012)
George Orwell is one of my favourite authors, and I was long fascinated by his time in Spain fighting for the Republic against General Franco and the military coup that eventually overthrew the democratically elected government. The experience inspired and tailored Orwell’s two greatest novels, Animal Farm and 1984, and it was the inspiration for this one. In my narrative history of the Spanish Civil War I use the writings of numerous British, German and American writers - including W.H. Auden, Kitty Bowler, Robert Capa, John Cornford, Jon Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Gustav Regler, Esmond Romilly, Gerda Taro and Tom Wittringham - to tell the terrifying story of the conflict from the Republican perspective.
‘David Boyd Haycock is a skillful historian, providing analyses of the political and military machinations at the same time as he brings the battles to life. And he makes the most of his colourful cast, strewing the narrative with splendidly unlikely tales of quirky heroism. By the end of the book it feels as though almost every eccentric British intellectual found his or her way to Spain.’ Lara Feigel, The Guardian, 16 November 2012.
George Orwell is one of my favourite authors, and I was long fascinated by his time in Spain fighting for the Republic against General Franco and the military coup that eventually overthrew the democratically elected government. The experience inspired and tailored Orwell’s two greatest novels, Animal Farm and 1984, and it was the inspiration for this one. In my narrative history of the Spanish Civil War I use the writings of numerous British, German and American writers - including W.H. Auden, Kitty Bowler, Robert Capa, John Cornford, Jon Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Gustav Regler, Esmond Romilly, Gerda Taro and Tom Wittringham - to tell the terrifying story of the conflict from the Republican perspective.
‘David Boyd Haycock is a skillful historian, providing analyses of the political and military machinations at the same time as he brings the battles to life. And he makes the most of his colourful cast, strewing the narrative with splendidly unlikely tales of quirky heroism. By the end of the book it feels as though almost every eccentric British intellectual found his or her way to Spain.’ Lara Feigel, The Guardian, 16 November 2012.
George Orwell is one of my favourite authors, and I was long fascinated by his time in Spain fighting for the Republic against General Franco and the military coup that eventually overthrew the democratically elected government. The experience inspired and tailored Orwell’s two greatest novels, Animal Farm and 1984, and it was the inspiration for this one. In my narrative history of the Spanish Civil War I use the writings of numerous British, German and American writers - including W.H. Auden, Kitty Bowler, Robert Capa, John Cornford, Jon Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Gustav Regler, Esmond Romilly, Gerda Taro and Tom Wittringham - to tell the terrifying story of the conflict from the Republican perspective.
‘David Boyd Haycock is a skillful historian, providing analyses of the political and military machinations at the same time as he brings the battles to life. And he makes the most of his colourful cast, strewing the narrative with splendidly unlikely tales of quirky heroism. By the end of the book it feels as though almost every eccentric British intellectual found his or her way to Spain.’ Lara Feigel, The Guardian, 16 November 2012.