Talk Radio's Home Schooling

On 12 June 2020 during Britain's Coronavirus lockdown, I was asked to contribute to Talk Radio's 'Home-Schooling' segment.

LSE expertise

I was very happy to take part in a short six minute film produced by the Gill Parker Consultancy. The film was commissioned by the L.S.E. to showcase the expertise of LSE academics; in this instance Professor of Contemporary Spanish History, Paul Preston. In addition to myself, the film included interviews with former Basque child, Herminio Martínez; Professor of Spanish History, Helen Graham; and Spanish writer and journalist, Lala Isla.

The Strange Death of Gerda Taro

On 31 May 2018 I joined the biographer and filmmaker, Jane Rogoyska, for a presentation at L.S.E.'s Cañada Blanch Centre, chaired by Professor Paul Preston. We were outlining our thoughts on the image that had recently appeared on social media: did it really show the celebrated photojournalist, Gerda Taro, on her death bed?

Football and the Spanish Civil War

Pictured here with the two speakers at the IBMT's 2019 Len Crome conference in Oxford: to my right, the researcher and author Daniel Gray, to my left historian and The Guardian's football correspondent, Sid Lowe. There are more images on the IBMT's Flickr account.

Full report in the May 2019 issue of ¡No Pasarán!

BBC Radio 3 Proms Extra

On 9 August 2017, I introduced a number of readings relating to the International Brigades, movingly delivered by actors Christopher Ecclestone and Yolanda Vazquez and by Margot Heinemann’s daughter, Jane Bernal.

Len Crome lecture, 2017

For this year's Len Crome event, I discussed the difficulties involved in establishing the precise background and origins of the volunteers for Spain from Britain & Ireland and how the various national groups in the International Brigades got along while fighting in Spain.
The talk will be on the IBMT's Youtube channel and a precis appears in issue 45 of the IBMT magazine (2/2017).

The last volunteer

In the Sky News studio talking about the former International Brigader, Geoffrey Servante, who died on 22 April 2019, aged 99. He was almost certainly the last surviving British veteran of the Spanish Civil War.

Find out more about Geoffrey Servante

The IBMT’s annual commemoration, London 2015

I have been attending the IBMT‘s annual in commemoration in London for over ten years now and, in my opinion, this year’s event was the best yet. Fears that the death of the last UK veteran would lead to an inevitable decline in the charities fortune have certainly proved to be ill-founded. Attendance this year was higher than ever.

wreaths_edited — Wreaths in the red, yellow and purple of the Spanish Republic

Clearly the weather played a part and there’s no denying that Owen Jones is a big draw. And not to forget a plug from the consistently supportive Robert Elms. But there was more to it than that. This year’s line-up was not just strong, it was well-balanced: a few, well-delivered speeches, some atmospheric music and the recital of an extremely moving poem.

banners — Banners in honour of the Spanish Republic and the International Brigades flying proudly

Speaking and performing at this year’s event in Jubilee Gardens were:

Jim Jump, Marlene Sidaway and Dolores Long of the International Brigade Memorial Trust
Almudena Cros, President of the Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales
Karl Lewkowicz writer and director of the Spanish Civil War musical, Goodbye Barcelona
Francesca Beard, performance poet
Carmen Negrín, grand-daughter of Juan Negrín, the last premier of the Spanish Republic
Owen Jones, journalist and activist

And performing afterwards in the Camel and Artichoke were:

Ewan McLennan, folk singer
na-mara, folk group with a political bent

na-mara in full flow at the Camel and Artichoke

There is an excellent online photo gallery of the event and several of the day’s speeches are on the IBMT’s YouTube page, including the passionate speech by Owen Jones featured on this blog, above.

It was great to see so many familiar faces; it was also great to see so many new faces. Congratulations to all involved. Roll on 2016!

Navigate / search

Richard Baxell

Historian, lecturer, author