The last of the grapes
There is something deeply nostalgic about the last day of the grape harvest. It symbolises the coming of autumn as poignantly as the emptying of the beaches or the departure of the swallows. In a year such as… Read More
Notes on (mis)translation (1)
It has been said that the most interesting aspect of translation is mistranslation — or, to put it another way, translation only gets noticed when it goes wrong. Everyone has their mistranslation stories, and there are now new… Read More
The Lakes of Covadonga
The road snakes up the mountainside above Covadonga towards the lakes of Enol and Ercina. A pair of eagles glide in slow synchrony against the infinite expanse of blue framed by the window of the bus. Access to… Read More
Covadonga: a separate reality
Before visiting Asturias, I knew nothing of Covadonga, or the special place it holds in the religious, political and cultural mythology of Spain. But the friends we consulted ahead of our journey all mentioned it as a site… Read More
Gaudí’s Folly
Comillas, on the Cantabrian coast, was for centuries a small fishing port of no great importance — whaling was the main industry — until in the mid nineteenth century, Antonio López y López, born into an upper class… Read More
Cave art in Cantabria
Over the past year or two we have visited various caves in Spain and France and wondered at the pictures made in them by Palaeolithic artists. It all began in March last year with a visit to Lascaux,… Read More
Driving to Cantabria
We take a trip, ostensibly to visit rock art in Cantabria and Asturias. But to get there we need to cross the great plain of Aragon, and the territory that comprises southern Navarra, northern Leon and Rioja. Much… Read More
Ricardo Blanco’s Blog
- Raids on the Underworld
- Invisible Dog by Fabio Morábito
- Further reflections on waking at 4.00 a.m.
- Illustrious insomniacs: 4.00 o’clock or whatever time in the morning
- The Future is Dark: Woolf, Solnit, Darrieussecq . . . and the Lucy Letby trial
- On moving home, the sorrows of Gaza, and a poem about kindness
- To be always the same person
- The last Welsh speakers of the Black Mountains
- Narrative Horror
- What’s in a name?
Richard Gwyn is the author of Ricardo Blanco's Blog
Richard Gwyn 