Andrew Whitehead

 

'Reporter in Spain'

16/03/2013

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A gem of a find this morning in a second-hand bookshop near Tufnell Park station - though it's not really a shop, as Healthy Planet gives away the books it stocks (I don't quite understand the business model, but if it works for them it certainly works for me).

Frank Pitcairn was the pseudonym of the left-leaning journalist Claud Cockburn (according to the Wiki entry, the BBC's Stephanie Flanders is his granddaughter). The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936, and Cockburn's reportage was published (by the CP's publishing house, Lawrence and Wishart) in October. This is a first edition - and unusually, it still has the dust jacket.
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Remembering Sam Lesser

03/10/2010

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Sam Lesser - one of the last survivors of the International Brigades which fought in the Spanish Civil War - died last night. He was 95.

He was among the first group of British volunteers to go to Spain in the autumn of 1936. Three months later he was shot and returned home wounded. He went back to Spain to work as a journalist, and in later years - under the name Sam Russell - reported for the communist Daily Worker. I interviewed him once - about Spain, about reporting from Moscow, and his meeting with Che Guevara who, Sam enjoyed recounting, told him that: "the communist parties of Latin America are shit!"

Sam was a hugely gregarious guy, with a hearty voice, a splendid moustache, and a twinkle in his eye. You can hear Sam here reminiscing only a few months ago about fighting in Spain. There are some wonderful photos of Sam and other IB veterans - taken by Eamonn McCabe.

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