May 17th was Galician Literature Day (Día de las Letras Galegas) here in Northwest Spain. The day, which is a Galician holiday, was inaugurated in 1963 as a celebration of Galician literature and language. Galicia has a rich history of prose, poetry and song in line with its Celtic roots and many towns mark the occasion with readings, talks, and festivities.
In this month’s blog I’m paying homage to a new breed of Galician writers, English speaking authors who have made Galicia their home. These honorary Galician authors write in a variety of genres, from memoir to mysteries, and from family sagas to Shakespearean egg-timer verse.
We are a mixed bunch but all have one thing in common – a love of this, our adopted land.
Liza Grantham
Liza Grantham hails from the east Midlands brewery town of Burton-on-Trent. She taught in primary schools in England and Gran Canaria, before trading her life of sun, sea and sand to try her hand at self-sufficiency in Galicia, one of the coldest, wettest parts of Spain.
The Mad Cow in Galicia series is an amusing and shamelessly honest account of how Liza and her husband, Gary, make the challenging and often hilarious transition from townies to peasants out in a remote village where there are many surprises in store!
Book one of the series is called Mad Cows and Englishm,,en, at large in Galicia. Living in an old stone house in a remote hamlet surrounded by fields and forests that go on forever sounds like paradise, but, as Liza and her husband soon discover, their new lifestyle isn’t quite the tranquil idyll they’d been expecting.
In How Now, Mad Cow? the couple head into their second year and embark on their first foray into self-sufficiency - surely there can’t be any more shocks and surprises in store?
The third book of Liza’s life in Galicia, ’Til Mad Cow Comes Home, is coming soon.
If you enjoyed my Writing Home series, you will absolutely love Liza’s tales of rural Galician life.
Liza is also an accomplished poet, including some of her, often hilarious, verse at the end of each chapter of her books and has penned a series of Shakespeare’s plays in egg-timer verse. The egg-timer series is available on Amazon.
Jacqueline P Vincent
Jacqueline P Vincent lives in Galicia with her sainted partner, John, three cats and two horses. She loves writing anything from six-word stories to full length novels.
She travels when she can, often with a rucksack and a journal, and has lived in a 1978 American Motorhome, which she and John renovated. Her favourite forms of exercise are walking, riding and dry-stone walling. She plays the Ukulele and is a member of a local Galego choir.
Jacqueline is another honorary Galego who writes in a wide range of genres, and in both verse and prose. From historical girl with horse adventure stories (for ages 9-13) set in ancient Galicia to family sagas with a moral dilemma, her stories are page turners and her imagination is wild.
The Longing: desperate to have a family of their own, Stephen and Paul face impossible hurdles to realise their dream.
Mrs Brown: Prejudice, class, a crumbling estate and a dowager duchess conspire against Angelina and Robert's hard work restoring the family's fortunes. A family saga with a twist.
And for children, grandchildren and those young at heart, Amalie's Perilous Journey. A hazardous journey to the coast to beat the boatmen who carry the remnants of her previous happy life. Amalie and Roble, her horse, battle raging rivers, wolves and a thief to reach their goal and be reunited with her possessions.
Breandán Ó Seighin
Breandán Ó Seighin is a creative aura of energy now residing at altitude in the Galician countryside in North West Spain. Having completed a formal education, he travelled extensively around India, walking in the Himalaya, frequenting tropical beaches on the Arabian Sea and travelling over 6,000 kilometres on public transport there, always with his pipe and hashish. He has busked in the streets of the Basque Country, chauffeured in Italy, played football in Italy and Spain and the Rif Mountains, smuggled contraband between continents, surfed in the Atlantic Ocean, played countless live concerts, travelled by train from Amsterdam to Marrakesh and despite being locked up a few times, has learnt how to survive with schizophrenia.
A Method in the Madness is Breandán’s first memoir. Brendan Shine (the English version of Breandán’s Celtic name) is a musician, singer, sportsman and smoker. Follow his exploits as he rock 'n' rolls with hedonistic excess through the drug fuelled 90's, journeying through India, the Middle east, Northern Africa and the Mediterranean, in and out of psychiatric hospitals and living to tell the tale.
Heath Savage
Heath Savage was born in east Belfast in 1961 and emigrated to Australia with her family in 1966. Heath has also lived in Belgium and the USA. She settled in Galicia, Spain, in 2018, where she lives in a village in the Ribeira Sacra.
I’ve yet to read Heath’s Edinburgh murder mystery series but a fellow writer says of book one: ‘it is well-written, underpinned by a dark malevolence offset by moments of optimism and warmth.’ I can’t wait!
Festival of Death: An Edinburgh Murder Mystery is her first novel. Heath has had a number of articles published in an English language newspaper in Spain, and contributed prose and poetry to three editions of The Good Life in Galicia anthology (Cyberworld Publishing). Heath is currently working on a number of projects; Dances with Death: Another Edinburgh Murder Mystery, part two of the Edinburgh Murder Mystery trilogy, a recipe book featuring the traditional cuisine of Galicia, and a collection of her poems and drawings.
You can follow Heath HERE
A D Thorne
Abigail Thorne, writing as A D Thorne, pens murder mysteries set on the Camino de Santiago. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series.
Abigail Thorne lives in Sarria, in the Lugo province of Galicia, Northern Spain. Sarria is situated on the French route of the Camino de Santiago. Every Pilgrim has a story to tell and that is what inspired her to write the Camino de Santiago Murders series, although in real life the Camino is not filled with murder and intrigue of a criminal nature.
In book one, Death of a Pilgrim, the daughter of a prominent politician is murdered whilst walking the Camino de Santiago. From book two, Mass Murder, ‘They wanted revenge. He wanted justice. Ex-Chief Inspector Richard Harris wanted the truth. The murdered English priest lay in the Cathedral Chapel, in Santiago de Compostela, the fifth death on the Camino, and the fifth on sacred ground’.
Abigail is currently writing the next book in the Camino de Santiago Murders series which will be called Sea Dead and will be available in September.
She has won prizes in the Good Life in Galicia writing competition for poetry, memoir, and short stories.
A new series of Cosy Mysteries set in a book shop is planned for Christmas.
She can be found at Abigail Thorne Storyteller,
And finally, there’s me,
Lisa Rose Wright.
I was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in the English Midlands 57½ years ago. I lived in the same house for the first eighteen years of my life then another eighteen over the next twenty years. I first visited Galicia in spring 2004, eighteen years ago this month, and moved here permanently in 2007.
I adore this area and its people and I try to show my love for Galicia through my writing.
It was whilst I was finishing the Writing Home series about our adventures renovating our home, A Casa do Campo, that I realised many of the places we have discovered over the years wouldn’t fit into those stories. Thus, was born a new book.
Pulpo, Pig & Peppers – travels around Galicia, is part travel guide, mainly travelogue memoir, of places, events and attractions we have visited and enjoyed. Each place I wrote about elicited a memory, an anecdote, or a yarn which turned this book into a labour of love – for all the wonderful places in Beautiful Green Galicia.
From Viking festivals to undiscovered beaches, Celtic roundhouses to Galician peppers, and from mountain villages to ancient forests – each chapter is devoted to one trip, one experience, one more enjoyable adventure here at the end of the world.
Pulpo, Pig & Peppers – travels around Galicia, will be published on July 1st. The ebook is now available for pre-order.
I’ll finish with my favourite quote from Galician poet, Vicente Risco, which sums up for me the beauty of Galicia and the talent of her writers: Tú dices: Galicia es muy pequeña. Yo te digo: Galicia es un mundo y cada vez que la recorras encontrarás cosas nuevas... ‘You say: Galicia is very small. I say to you: Galicia is a world and each time you return to it you will find new things...’
Galicia truly is small, but her landscape, and her people, make this area so much more than a tiny region.
Ata logo, as the Galicians say, until next time.
Comments