The director of the Cervantes Institute inaugurates the first Spanish exile route in London

The director of the Cervantes Institute will take part this Thursday, 3 February, in an intense day of celebration of Spanish literature and Spanish-British ties in London, which will include the inauguration of a Spanish exile route in the city and the presentation of a lost manuscript from the 16th century to the National Library of Spain, represented by its director, Ana Santos. In addition, Luis García Montero will dedicate a tribute from the London Cervantes Institute to the Hispanist Trevor Dadson, will present the English translation of the book 'Wild Creature' by Joan Margarit, and will sign a cultural collaboration agreement with Jimmy Burns Marañón, President of the British Spanish Society.

With this agenda of activities, the Cervantes Institute in London aims to "honour the Spanish memory of the city, publicise the diversity of our poetry, celebrate British Hispanism and underline the strength of the cultural ties between Britain and Spain", in the words of the centre's director, the writer and journalist Ignacio Peyró.

García Montero will take part in the launch of the first Spanish exile route in East London, in a procession led by the Spanish ambassador, José Pascual Marco.

The route includes stops and mentions of Spanish exiles in London, in places such as Russell Court (Manuel Chaves Nogales, Gabriel Portillo, Joan Gili), Lincoln's inn (Josep Trueta), British Museum (Esteban Salazar Chapela), Kingsway (Pablo de Azcárate), LSE (Josep María Batista Roca), Bush House (Arturo Barea), Fleet Street (Casiodoro de Reina, Cipriano Valera) and Temple (Antonio del Corro).

This walk is the first of a series of routes, with qualified guides, that the Cervantes Institute in London will include in its programme to raise awareness of the legacy of the Spaniards who lived and worked in the British capital.

García Montero and Jimmy Burns Marañón, President of the British Spanish Society (BSS), will later sign a framework collaboration agreement that will consolidate a long-standing mutual relationship.

The agreement between the Cervantes Institute and the century-old British-Spanish organisation envisages cooperation in educational and academic matters, technical and consultancy studies, research and technological development and innovation projects, and cooperation in European programmes.

The old collection in the library of the Cervantes Institute in London, comprising some 800 copies of books by British travellers in Spain and antique volumes, will be dedicated to the memory of the famous British Hispanist and professor Trevor Dadson (1947-2020). From now on, this collection will bear the name "Trevor Dadson Collection", as a tribute to his figure and to the rich tradition of Hispanists in the United Kingdom.

The event will be attended by his widow, Ángeles Gimeno; the president of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (AHGBI, which Dadson chaired between 2011 and 2015), Professor Catherine Boyle, and the director of Cervantes London, Ignacio Peyró. 

Dadson was an academic, a teacher of generations of scholars and a lover of Spain and Spanish culture. A literary historian, he was the author of important studies on the poetry of the Golden Age and the Moors.

In the afternoon, at the Spanish Embassy, a manuscript from the end of the 16th century, entitled 'Abusos de comedias y tragedias', will be returned to the National Library. The document will be received by the director of this institution, Ana Santos, in the presence of García Montero.

The manuscript, which deals with the typical theme of the morality of the theatre at the time, consists of 24 pages on 12 folios. The document formed part of the Biblioteca Nacional's collections until the mid-19th century, when it disappeared from its holdings. A century and a half later, Ángel María García Gómez, professor emeritus at the University College of London, found it in an old bookshop in an English county and bought it. With its delivery to the Biblioteca Nacional, Professor García Gómez's wish is fulfilled that the valuable manuscript - now in the custody of the Cervantes Library in London - should return to its former home.

The day will culminate with the presentation of the English translation of the book Wild Creature (Animal de bosc), by the Catalan poet Joan Margarit (1938-2021), winner of the Cervantes Prize 2019. The translation was financially supported by Cervantes London.

'Wild Creature', published by Bloodaxe Books in the UK, has been translated from Catalan into English by Anna Crowe, who will take part in the event together with the publisher, Neil Astley, and Margarit's grandson, Eduard Lezcano. The presentation will close with a recital of Margarit's poems in Catalan and English by Marc Bosch and Alex Mugnaioni, respectively.

García Montero's work schedule in the United Kingdom will continue on Friday, 4 February, in Manchester, where he will visit the Cervantes Institute facilities and talk to the staff. He will then hold a meeting with the Spanish Consul General in the city, Laura García Alfaya, and with Diana Cullell, Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Liverpool, followed by a visit to the John Rylands Library.

Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor.