Ian Gibson (author)

Ian Gibson
Ian Gibson at the Madrid Book Fair
Born	(1939-04-21) April 21, 1939 Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Writer
Language	Spanish
Nationality	Irish
Citizenship	Spanish
Alma mater	Trinity College

Ian Gibson (born 21 April 1939) is an Irish author and Hispanist known for his biographies of Antonio Machado, Salvador Dalí, Henry Spencer Ashbee, and particularly his work on Federico García Lorca, for which he won several awards, including the 1989 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography. His work, La represión nacionalista de Granada en 1936 y la muerte de Federico García Lorca (The nationalistic repression of Granada in 1936 and the death of Federico García Lorca) was banned in Spain under Franco.

Born into a Methodist Dublin family, he was educated at Newtown School in Waterford and graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. He became a professor of Spanish literature at Belfast and London universities before moving to Spain. His first novel, Viento del Sur (Wind of the South, 2001), written in Spanish, examines class, religion, family life, and public schools in British society through the fictitious autobiography of a character named John Hill, an English linguist and academic. It won favourable reviews in Spain.

Gibson has also worked in television on projects centering on his scholarly work in Spanish history, having served as a historical consultant and even acting in one historical drama.

He was granted a Spanish passport (citizenship) 1984. He lives in the Alpujarras, near Granada.

Ian Gibson also narrated a two part documentary for BBC2 on the Great Irish Famine in 1995.

Works

• La represión nacionalista de Granada en 1936 y la muerte de Federico García Lorca (1971).
• En busca de José Antonio (1981).
• Un irlandés en España (1982).
• La noche que mataron a Calvo Sotelo (1982).
• Paracuellos, cómo fue (1983).
• Guía de la Granada de Federico García Lorca (1989).
• España (1993).
• Vida, pasión y muerte de Federico García Lorca (1998).
• La vida desaforada de Salvador Dalí (1998).
• Lorca-Dalí, el amor que no pudo ser (1999).
• Viento del sur (2001).
• Yo, Ruben Darío (2002).
• Cela, el hombre que quiso ganar (2004).
• Ligero de equipaje (2006).
• Cuatro poetas en guerra (2007).
• Lorca y el mundo gay (2009).
• La berlina de Prim (2012), Fernando Lara Award, 2012.

References

• Short biography
• Ian Gibson at IMDb
• Guardian article on Viento del Sur