Our Fathers Fought Franco by Willy Maley sampler
resonant piece of working class history, this book is a living link to four extraordinary stories. Why did these young men put their lives on the line and go to Spain to fight with the International Brigades? How did they all end up in the same prison cell? And what is their legacy today? James Maley, George Watters, Donald Renton and Archibald Williams were members of Machine Gun Company No. 2 of the XV International Brigade. This is the first book to focus on a small group of men who, from different starting-points, ended up on the same battleground at Jarama, and then in the same prisons after capture by Franco’s forces. Their remarkable story is told both in their own words and in the recollections of their sons and daughters, through a prison notebook, newspaper reports, stills cut from newsreels, interviews, anecdotes and memories, with a foreword by Daniel Gray. Our Fathers Fought Franco is a collective biography that promises to add significantly to the understanding of the motives of those who ‘went because their open eyes could see no other way’.
resonant piece of working class history, this book is a living link to four extraordinary stories. Why did these young men put their lives on the line and go to Spain to fight with the International Brigades? How did they all end up in the same prison cell? And what is their legacy today?
James Maley, George Watters, Donald Renton and Archibald Williams were members of Machine Gun Company No. 2 of the XV International Brigade. This is the first book to focus on a small group of men who, from different starting-points, ended up on the same battleground at Jarama, and then in the same prisons after capture by Franco’s forces.
Their remarkable story is told both in their own words and in the recollections of their sons and daughters, through a prison notebook, newspaper reports, stills cut from newsreels, interviews, anecdotes and memories, with a foreword by Daniel Gray.
Our Fathers Fought Franco is a collective biography that promises to add significantly to the understanding of the motives of those who ‘went because their open eyes could see no other way’.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Lisa Croft lives in Lancashire and was a library assistant for over 20 years.<br />
She writes this account on behalf of her mother, Rosemary Nina Williams,<br />
who was born when her father was imprisoned in Spain, and for her aunt,<br />
Jennifer Talavera Williams, who is named after that Spanish jail’s location.<br />
<strong>Willy</strong> <strong>Maley</strong> teaches at the University of Glasgow and is co-author, with<br />
his brother John, of From the Calton to Catalonia, a play based around<br />
their father’s experiences in Spain in 1937.<br />
Jennie Renton is a secondhand bookseller and publishing freelancer in<br />
her home city of Edinburgh. As founder-editor of Scottish Book Collector<br />
she produced over 80 issues of the magazine; she also edited Folio for the<br />
National Library of Scotland.<br />
Tam Watters worked as a coal miner for 25 years until Bilston Glen<br />
Colliery closed. A keen amateur photographer, he went on to work as<br />
a camera sales adviser for the next 23 years and is now retired. In his<br />
younger days he was a Scottish weightlifting champion.<br />
All royalties generated from the sale of this book will be donated to the<br />
International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) which ‘keeps alive the<br />
memory and spirit of the men and women who fought fascism in Spain<br />
from 1936 to 1939’. www.international-brigades.org.uk
Change language