Nieves Mathews

Nieves Mathews, 1917-2003, is an author of Scottish and Spanish parentage.

Family background

Her father was the distinguished Spanish diplomat and scholar Salvador de Madariaga. Her mother was the distinguished economic historian Constance Archibald.

Nieves was the older of 2 daughters. She was not allowed to be baptised because of her father's anti-clericalism. She is the mother of two sons, Luis Solana, a former Spanish telephone executive was opposed to Franco's dictatorship and was imprisoned for his political activities. Her younger son, Javier Solana became a well known Spanish politician before becoming the former head of NATO, and is know the European Union foreign policy chief.

Career

She was employed for upwards of 20 years by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, a United Nations agency headquartered in Rome. Her Yale University-published book on the life of Sir Francis Bacon was released in 1996. The 606 page volume is called Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination. She claimed in her acknowledgements that the book was suggested and blessed by "my teacher, Osho," (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) "who thought highly of Sir Francis Bacon and gave the book his blessing." She was also deeply influenced by the works of Immanuel Velikovsky.