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Blanco Y Negro: Book 2 of the In Spain Series 

2/24/2014

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Shadows and Silhouettes (Book 1) was re-released at the beginning of the month with the promise that the sequel - Book 2 Blanco y Negro would be available from this week. 

Blanco y Negro continues to explore contemporary Spain by asking: What happens when you remove the sky blues, verdant greens and sandy yellows from this hybrid country?

The answer can be found in the contrast of dramatic images and the revelatory words of different travellers as they have arrive on these shores. Download, put your feet up, slow down and enjoy this new book.

"Nice Cup of Coffee in Plaza Mayor" or Stunning Photobook?

Choice is Yours. Have a look at some of the screen shots above and decide for yourself. Usually 2.49  - each book is now half price (Nice cup of coffee or 75 pages of stunning photography showing another Spain altogether.  Find out more about the series here: Or just grab a copy right away and download both versions in PDF and epub for the same price from here. (Share and get the 50% off). 
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The Untold Story From The Civil War: The Spy, The Blood Bank and the Exodus of a City

2/17/2014

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One episode from the Spanish Civil War still remains relatively unknown: A episode of bravery and betrayal, dogmatism and defeat. It is brief story of Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor, the “foreign spy” and man who came to help a city in exodus. 
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Try to imagine that the city of Malaga is to be evacuated overnight. 150.000 people will have to walk 200km along the N340 in search of a safe refuge whilst being pursued by Italian tanks, bombed by German aircraft and shelled by Rebel Nationalist ships. Men and women shot by planes or killed by blasts from the boats following them off-shore will be left at the roadside, innocent children abandoned to the chaos and inhumanity of adults at war. There will be little food, transport or fresh water. Nourished only by hope and driven by fear, exposed to the elements and to enemy fire, they will walk through the day and through the night. Many will be too weak to reach the safe port of Almería and survive only because a Canadian doctor comes to help. A doctor who will later be accused of spying and betrayal and will be unwillingly pushed out of Spain by the very people he had come to assist. (Read more after the slideshow...)

The Story Begins With a City In Fear...

In the aftermath of the 1936 elections in Spain, the new government watched as overnight, villages and towns began to dismantle the old symbols of inequality in the country. The Manchester Guardian reported that in the new radical atmosphere of Malaga “only foreigners now wore ties”. Unfortunately, the absence of ties did little to deter Franco and his allies from throwing the country into a sudden and brutal civil war.

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The "IN SPAIN" photo series: Book 1 is free this week

2/10/2014

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Share and Get it Free Here

Yup, thats right, a NEW updated and revised edition of Silhouettes and Shadows comes out this week and it's free. Usually 2.49 - Shadows and Silhouettes (Book 1 in the series of 4) is downloadable right now to anyone who shares or tweets it this week 

PDF or ePub?

You say Tomay-toes and I say Tomar-toes!
Got an ipad, tablet or smartphone? Then e-Pub is probably your choice? Got a laptop or desktop? Then maybe its PDF. Can't decide? Well, worry not as both are in the same convenient zipped package. E-pub and PDF huddled together for comfort.

So What's it all About?

Pick a selection of choice quotes from writers on Spain and match them to a series of gorgeous images and a theme begins to emerge. Shadows and Silhouettes is the first theme in a series of 4 that explores Spain by contrasting the written word and the image. Do this, and another Spain becomes visible - one that previously lay hidden. 

Why 4 Books?

Each book takes a different theme, but builds from the previous one. Shadows and Silhouettes introduces the series, Blanco Y Negro (book 2) builds on the theme of light and contrast, whilst book 3: Speaking and Shouting talks about, well...speech. Finally Book 4 deals with harmony and balance in a country that is too often seen as a society in conflict. But these are not text books, they are photo books with succulent words that ooze from the edges of the page. These are books to devour over a glass of something, accompanied by a garlicky olive or two. 

And Book 1 is Free?

Yup. For the next week its free. All I ask in return is that you share the book. That means send out a tweet or share on Facebook to get a copy. Don't worry if you don't have a twitter account or FaceBook account (really, you don't?) - just let me know and I'll get a copy to you by other means. It's not obligatory to share - it's just a nice thing to do. (Plus it saves you 2.49). 

Can't I just pay the 2.49 ?

Emmm, sure. If you prefer. 

And what's with Book 2?

Blanco Y Negro comes out at the end of this month. Make sure you are subscribed to the site to be notified. Its bigger and better. and Blanco Y Negro (out Feb 25th 2014) takes the contrasts of Shadows and Silhouettes and investigates Spain from a perspective stripped of colour. Find out what is left when colour is removed from a country that is synonymous with Miro, sunsets and blue skies. You'll be surprised.
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Book 1 is full of images from all over Spain

Share and Get it Free Here

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Full of double-page spreads - Shadows and Silhouettes is free this week
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Pages and Pages of beautiful images and quotes from travellers and writers on Spain

Share and Get it Free Here

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"Truth is something we all take differently, as we do our coffee"
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Watching From a Safe Distance: Book 2 Blanco Y Negro available from 25th Feb. 2014
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Deaths Other Kingdom by Gamel Woolsey: Book Review

2/3/2014

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The Outbreak of the Civil War From The Wife of Gerald Brenan

Gamel woolseyGamel Woolsey
Death´s Other Kindom by Gamel Woolsey was not - as popular myth speculates - referring to living in Spain under the leadership of the Partido Popular -  but rather the Spain of 1936 during the immediate aftermath of the July Military Uprising.

Written from the relative safety of their Churriana Cortijo (In Malaga) Woolsey relates how she and her husband - Hispanist Gerald Brenan  (of South of Granada fame) - lived those first few tumultuous months of the civil war, before the invasion by Nationalist forces and the infamous exodus of the city of Malaga.

What gives the book its unique perspective for anyone interested in this revolutionary period of Spanish history, is that unlike other tales of the civil war by foreigners (Orwell, Lee, Bethune) Woolsey treads what she believes is a fine line between the Republicans and Nationalists. She exhibits both sympathy and outrage with her village - her 'pueblo' - as she wobbles precariously on the shaky fence of impartiality.

One unexpected outcome of this posturing, is her lucid depiction of the sadness, frustration and futility of wars as it affects all men irrespective of sides, perhaps referencing her chosen title here - taken as it is from T.S. Eliots poem: The Hollow Men.

As her 'pueblo' attempts to protect, defend, and finally bring to trial their own people, her humanity and compassion guides her though the successive waves of violence and vengeance in each chapter. Whilst the forces of rebellion made ground, allegiances become more fluid, or - as often the case as pressure mounts - set in stone as the war stumbles blindly forward.

It is a moving and intimate portrayal of those crucial few months of 1936, and unlike almost any other account of the war in English, it is told perceptively from someone who not only saw the scars opening on the horizon in front of her, but engaged with those who lives she was connected to, and whose lives were thrown so dramatically into turmoil by such events.

Gamel Woolsey returned again to Spain after the Civil War with Gerald Brenan, but her life as a writer and spiritual Hispanist would be forever eclipsed by the success of her husbands more analytical writings on the origins of conflict and his time living in the Alpujarras. (The Spanish Labyrinth and South of Granada).

Like Brenan, Woolsey was buried in the English Cemetery in Malaga. 

The Books 

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    BOOKS

    1984 and Spanish Civil War
    Available Now
     Why Orwell is essential to understanding Spain today. More here - Forgotten Stories From Spain
    Follow @GazpachoMonk

    Norman Bethune and the Spanish Civil war
    The Ambulance Man and the Spanish Civil War (2nd Ed)
    Find out More about the ebook and audio
    Forgotten Stories From Spain Book HERE
    AND WATCH THE TORTILLA VIDEO HERE
    Inside the tortilla book cover
    Listen to an audio sample here

    POSTS

    CNT newspaper
    Spain 1936: The Silenced Revolution
    Did Laurie Lee Lie - a 2 part investigation
    Did Laurie Lee Lie? Listen to the two part investigation.


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