Frida Stewart (m. Knight) wrote Firing a Shot for Freedom in the 1940s when her experiences in Spain's civil war and passionate belief in the Republican cause were very recent memories, fresh with hope, raw with regret. Vividly capturing the spirit of the times in each chapter, her escape from an internment camp in France during the Second World War, helped by the French Resistance, is described with a particularly tense detailed recall. Frida's own developing political feelings are placed within a rich historical context, mapping out the path she took from her roots in the philanthropic traditions found in drawing-rooms of the Cambridge intelligentsia to her arrival at a steadfast commitment to the ideals of socialism. The Afterword is based Angela Jackson's oral history interviews with Frida, together with material from her extensive collection of personal papers. It explores the fifty years Frida spent campaigning for causes after the memoirs end and offers insights into her indomitable character.

Firing a Shot for Freedom: The Memoirs of Frida Stewart

Biographies & Memoirs

Stewart, Frida

Community & Culture

Clapton Press Limited

Through oral and written narratives, this book examines the interaction between women and the war in Spain, their motivation, the distinctive form of their involvement and the effect of the war on their individual lives. These themes are related to wider issues, such as the nature of memory and the role of women within the public sphere. The extent to which women engaged with this cause surpasses by far other instances of female mobilisation in peace-time Britain. Such a phenomenon therefore can offer lessons to those who would wish to encourage a greater degree of interest amongst women in political activities today.

British Women and the Spanish Civil War

History

Jackson, Angela

Europe

Juana Manuela Gorriti was born in Argentina in 1814, in the province of Salta. Her father fought in the War of Independence but was forced into exile in Bolivia in 1831 under the Rosas dictatorship. Juana married an army officer who became the Bolivia's president and was later assassinated in his palace. She was recognised in her time as one of Latin America's outstanding authors, but few of her works have been translated into English.A love story, ghost story and gothic horror rolled into one, the action of The Yocci Well takes place in two parallel periods spanning twenty years, contrasting Argentina's War of Independence with the savagery of the civil wars that followed. This brilliant novella is now available in English for the first time, together with an introduction and explanatory notes.

The Yocci Well

Literature & Fiction

Gorriti, Juana Manuela

Literary

Kate Mangan was a graduate of Slade Art School and sometime model and danseuse in Paris, much admired by Augustus John. She went out to Spain in 1936 in search of her lover, Jan Kurzke, a German refugee who had joined the International Brigade to fight in defence of the Spanish Republic. She ended up working for the Republic's Press & Censorship office, travelling around Spain, visiting the battlefront and meeting a host of characters including W.H. Auden, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and many others. When Jan was seriously injured she visited him in hospital, helped him across the border into France and left him with friends in Paris so she could return to her job in Valencia. This is her previously unpublished memoir, with a Preface by Paul Preston and an Afterword by her daughter, Charlotte Kurzke.

Never More Alive: Inside the Spanish Republic

Mangan, Kate

Aged twenty-one, James R Jump gave up his job as a journalist and went to Spain to fight General Franco's fascists in the Spanish civil war of 1936-39. Leaving his Spanish fiancée in England, he joined the legendary International Brigades and was mentioned in despatches for bravery during the Battle of the Ebro. This is his previously unpublished memoir, bringing to life his time in Spain and the tragic course of the war he took part in. The author's accompanying poems reflect the intense emotions sparked by his experience - anger, comradeship, fear, grief and determination - as well as his growing love of Spain and a lament for the passing of a generation who fought alongside him.

The Fighter Fell in Love: A Spanish Civil War Memoir

Jump, James R.

Historical

The Good Comrade: Memoirs of an International Brigader

Kurzke, Jan

Constancia de la Mora was the granddaughter of Antonio Maura, who had served under Alfonso XIII as Prime Minister of Spain. She was one of the first women to obtain a divorce under the new laws passed by the fledgling Spanish Republic, and quickly remarried. Her new husband was appointed commander of the Republican air force when the fascist rebellion broke out in 1936, while Constancia became a key figure in the Republic's International Press Office. This is her autobiography, first published in 1940.

In Place of Splendour: The Autobiography of a Spanish Woman

de la Mora, Constancia

Bob Baldock spent five months in the Sierra Maestra of Cuba in1958 with Fidel Castro's combat unit, Movimiento 26 de Julio. While there, he was the only U.S. citizen from the mainland to see action in combat with Fidel's unit. Essentially autobiographical, Wild Green Oranges is a novel based on those experiences.

Wild Green Oranges

Bob Baldock

Leaders & Notable People

Brutal Tales

Herrera, Ernesto

Behind the Spanish Barricades

Langdon-Davies, John

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