The Clapton Press is an independent publisher based in London E5, established in 2018.[1]
Although its publication list is not restricted to any particular theme, The Clapton Press has a strong interest in Spain and Latin America. This is reflected in the Memories of Spain series of previously unpublished or out of print memoirs, written mainly by English-speaking individuals with direct experience of living in Spain during the 1930s. They engaged in a variety of occupations, as journalists, nurses, volunteer fighters and stretcher bearers with the International Brigades. Authors include Esmond Romilly, Inez Pearn, Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, Kate Mangan, F G Tinker jr, Arturo Barea and Frida Stewart.[2] Many of these publications have been produced in collaboration with leading historians specialising in modern Spanish history and, in particular, the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War, as well as other related historical research. Contributors include Paul Preston, Angela Jackson, Richard Baxell, Soledad Fox Maura, Jim Jump, William Chislett and Boris Volodarsky.[3]
This series focusses on literary works by contemporary Spanish authors which The Clapton Press considers as modern classics but which have been overlooked by more mainstream publishers of literature in translation.
The Press is also developing a series of previously untranslated works from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, with the support of Programa Sur, DIRAC and IDA.[4]
The Press has recently republished What One Man Saw, Being the Personal Impressions of a War Correspondent in Cuba by H. Irving Hancock, recounting the author's experiences as an embedded journalist with the US forces that landed in Cuba during their war of independence against Spain in 1898; and Wild Green Oranges by Bob Baldock, an autobiographical novel based on the author's experiences fighting in Cuba in 1958 alongside Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.[5]