A book launch.

Last night we went to the launch of a new book entitled 'Águilas and the English'. Águilas is the town nearest to us.

This is a book written by the author Antonio Hernandez and is about the influence of the British in Águilas in the mines and the railways across Southern Spain. He is predominantly interested in music and it was while he was researching the Russian Ballet in Spain for a book, that he was sent some unpublished documents about Águilas which he felt he couldn't ignore and so he put his work on the Russian Ballet to one side and began research into the impact of the British in the area of Águilas.

He acknowledges that there were many Scots, Welsh & Irish also, but he preferred the title to read Águilas and the English as locally 'English' is used as a term to cover all the nationalties. At the launch there were a couple of descendants from people who were key in the railway being built.

The book is written in both English & Spanish, on each page (so I understand) and there were many British people at the launch hoping to purchase the book.

The book retails at €25, so is not cheap but the author explained this is due to all the documentation and research that was necessary.

We were looking forward to getting a copy and reading about the local area as we have only been able to pick up bits of information since we have been here and we feel it must have a big history with all the ore mines around.

Unfortunately, the author told us his publisher had not got any books to him for sale at the launch and so we would have to go to the bookshop in Águilas to buy one, and this also meant it wouldn't be possible to get the authors signature in the book - although he did explain that he was due to publish another book next year so we could always take this one along for him to sign then, if we so wished.

So, as a book launch it fell a little flat because there were no books to look at or buy, but for anyone wanting to read about the impact the Brits have had in the area over the last few generations, this is possibly one to look for.