The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor

[PaulB]

I have just bought The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor to take with me next week. Not exactly light poolside reading, but hopefully right up my street. Has any one read this, or have any other recommendations for anything else on the Spanish Civil War?

 

[pollensa]

have any other recommendations for anything else on the Spanish Civil War?

Homage to Calalonia (G. Orwell)...

 

[smg]

got it, but only dipped in....bones of victims surfaced on mallorca beaches, I recall

 

[RobnAnna]

I have just bought The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor to take with me next week. Not exactly light poolside reading, but hopefully right up my street. Has any one read this, or have any other recommendations for anything else on the Spanish Civil War?

Hope this helps,when I was a student I recall having to read a huge book called The Spanish Civil War by Hugh Thomas .Wonderful reading for a history student and very detailed.It might not be that easy to find a copy now,I got mine around 30 years ago.It would take more than a two week stay to plough through it.George Orwells Homage to Catalonia is short and a really good read,especially regarding the infighting etc amongst the republicans during the war.This is still widely available.

 

[roig cat]

I highly recommend "Winter in Madrid" by CJ Sansom

Winter in Madrid: Amazon.co.uk: C. J. Sansom: Books

 

[Gommar Goffer]

Guernica by Dave Boling - haven't read it but have heard that it is very good. It is fictional but apparently factualy accurate.

 

[ohjay]

I will also recommend "Winter in Madrid" absolutely great read as are all CJ Samson's books

 

[pescador2009]

GG mentions Guernica by Dave Bolling - an excellent an somewhat moving read, a novel based very much on truth.
Guerra by Jason Webster - accurate vivid and perceptive, considerable power and beauty (reviews).
Ghosts of Spain by Giles Tremblett - essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Spain (BBC History review). Can be hard going in places but once into it it makes very, very good reading. Nothing hidden regarding this part of spains difficult past.

 

[lollipop]

Anna Nicholas's Donkey on my Doorstep looks at how the Spanish Civil War affected Mallorca I believe.

 

[allanglens]

Definately agree with 'pescador' re Giles Tremblett's "Ghosts of Spain". A very up to date (2004/5) book on modern Spain and Spanish attitudes. I found it quite well written, although not quite in the same league as the two noted below.

Somewhat more dated, but a good read for the style and flavour of the county in the Franco era is H.V. Morton's "A Stranger in Spain". Similarly, Jan Morris's "Spain" has been slighty updated, but you read Morris for the style and prose, not necessarily the factual content.

Must see if I can find any others for my forthcoming trip.

allanglens

 

[roig cat]

I know I'm risking stating the obvious here, but there may be some readers who are new to "Spanish civil war" so I'm recommending:

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" Ernest Hemingway (1941)

Great book!

PS I've never see the film.

 

[roig cat]

One of my favourite books detailing life during civil war is "Eleni" by Nicholas Gage.

I knooow, I knoooow it's not Spanish civil war!! It's about Greece, BUT it is a fantastice read. It reads like a fictional book but it is all fact, very gruesome and very moving. Nicholas Gage (AKA Nikola Gatzoyiannis) tells the story of his mothers bravery to ensure her children escape the terror of the communists in Northern Greece. It's a long book and as is usually the case can take some getting in to, but once the "story" starts you'll be hooked!

 

[volp]

I have read The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor and I think it is the best book on the Spanish civil war. It is definitely not one sided and covers the atrocities committed by both sides. There is no romanticism (is that the right word?) in his writing. His thoughts about the results of another outcome of the war are also interesting.
More than thirty years after Franko’s death the war is still much under a blanket officially. But if you talk to your Spanish friend you might hear more about it. Our neighbour’s parents (from mainland Spain) were fighting on different sides on the same front. They really did not have a choice. It was join or die!
As you know Mallorca was supporting Franco during the civil war which makes its history even more repressed here.

Anders