Fernando Schwartz quote
Fernando Schwartz is an award-winning Spanish writer, diplomat and television presenter. By carrying out his work as an international relations officer — like his parents — he had the opportunity to travel for more than a decade through different countries. He served as the Spanish ambassador to Kuwail and the Netherlands. He was also a foreign affairs spokesman before retiring in 1988.
After his retirement he worked as an editorial advisor for the group RUSH, y The country. In addition, he was communications director and spokesperson for the same group. Likewise, He is famous for having written works of great importance, such as The internationalization of the Spanish civil war (1971) and the disagreement (1996) —for the latter he won the Planeta Prize—.
Synopsis of the most important books by Fernando Schwartz
Gingham, 1940 (2006)
The spa town congregates before the new regime: the Vichy Government. It is a collaborationist modality instituted in the Second World War after a Franco-German armistice, whose regent is Marshal Pétain. In this context of false victory, a delegation close to the president constitutes the first cell of the resistance.
It is within this nucleus that a passionate love story will be born between Marie - a young French woman of Jewish origin - and Manuel - a former Spanish diplomat - disappointed in reality and older than her. The dark political atmosphere of the city and their efforts to obtain justice will make them face complex decisions.. They will have to choose between living in oppression or being free; between loving each other or submitting to their commitments; between the failure or the victory of their ideals.
The Gulf Conspiracy (1982)
The story begins when an Israeli atomic experiment creates a disturbance in the Arabian Gulf. This event triggers a convoluted web of international action, exposing a dramatic conspiracy to gain control of the Arab peoples from the highest bidders.
The protagonists are an Anglo-Spanish journalist and a star of the Crazy Horse Saloon. —a parisian cabaret—. Both characters accidentally get involved in a dangerous adventure that they do not understand until it is too late.
the disagreement (1996)
This work tells the story of Africa Anglés, a woman who married very young with a lazy and charming casanova. In the context of the civil war they have a daughter. Nevertheless, Anglés's husband leaves her to her fate for a woman much more open to the pleasures of bed.
After being abandoned, her life is like that of all Spanish ladies. The morality of the Franco period requires that the protagonist has no choice but to go live with her parents, take care of her daughter and go to mass.
However, a trip to Mexico brings about changes that will settle for the rest of his days. It is at this time that Africa begins to truly live -although I must keep the secret of everything that happened-. The plot is narrated from the point of view of Javier, the young nephew of Anglés. The boy is in love with his aunt; however, he is unable to reveal it. Still, he tries to reveal the mysteries she tries to hide.
Internationalization of the Spanish Civil War (1971)
In this play, Fernando Schwartz studies the emergence of the civil war and the internal and international conflicts that it generated. The author investigates and analyzes the spirits, political opinions and movements related to this event. In parallel, this book develops three fundamental arguments:
How and why the allied countries of both armies (Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union) organized themselves to help both sides?; What was the impact of these actions on individuals, and how is it shown as a reflection of their generation? How did the civil war begin in Spain in that dramatic political situation full of fear towards Hitler and Mussolini? Swatch examines the beginning, development and outcome of events.
I lived years of storm (2012)
Terror and hope converge in the protagonists of this story: a large family from the Salamanca neighborhood in Madrid. The members meet to attend the Spanish transition. Everything happens in the context of the thirty years that have elapsed between the Carreto Blanco attack in 1973 and the explosion of the Atocha bombs in 2004.
Lola Ruiz de Olara —who is the sixth daughter of the Marquises of Villaurbina— retrieve your memories. Through his diary, he tells the story of his family and of Spain itself. The events of the exhausting years are revealed full of pain, tenderness, love and humor, as well as extraordinary intelligence.
Heroes of days ago (2016)
In this book the reader has the opportunity to meet again with Marie and Manuel, characters from the novel vichy,1940. Both characters were separated by war and a series of bad coincidences. Tired of death and conflict, they go through all the obstacles in order to get back together. In addition, the story has a third protagonist: Domingo, a Spanish anarchist.
The plot of this work begins on August 24, 1944, when La Nueva —a retinue of republicans of Spanish origin— invade paris and obtains the surrender of the German army. The novel follows the events from France to Algeria, the landing of the company in Normandy, and then the final blow in the French zone.
About the author, Fernando Schwartz Girón
Ferdinand Schwartz
Fernando Schwartz Girón was born in 1937, in Geneva, Switzerland. He grew up in a family dedicated to international relations. His father, Juan Schwartz Díaz-Flores, was a Spanish ambassador to Austria, and his brother, Pedro Schwartz, is a well-known liberal economist. Fernando studied at the Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar, and dedicated himself to various areas of communication from then on.
In addition to being a diplomat and writer, He worked as a professor of opinion at the journalism faculty of El País, at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He was also the presenter of the program The + Plus, from Canal +, together with Máximo Pradera and Ana García-Siñeriz, between 1995 and 2004. In 2006 he presented the program Schwartz & Co. on Autonomous television IB3. He was also nominated for a Planet Award for the novel The Gulf Conspiracy.
Other notable works by Fernando Schwartz
- The revenge (1988);
- Kuwait (1990);
- The Queen of Serbia (1993)
- the worst man in the world (1999/;
- Initiation and symbolic thought in pharaonic Egypt (1999);
- South of Carthage (2000);
- The Beth Loring Hoax (2000);
- Education and rest. Anecdotes of diplomacy (2000);
- I change two of twenty-five for one of fifty (2002);
- The lacquer bowl (2008);
- The prince of oases (2009);
- Let meneses go (2019);
- Meneses in Skopelos (2021);
- A lucky life. Memories (2022)