ENGLISH HOURS (BIOGRAFIA) - Tapa blanda

Ferran Soldevila (1894-1971) was a professional Catalan historian who also enjoyed success as a poet and dramatist. Seconded from the University of Barcelona, he went in 1926 on a two-year posting as Spanish language assistant at Liverpool University. On returning to Barcelona he was actively engaged in the cultural dimension of Catalanist politics in the turbulent years leading to the Spanish Civil War and subsequently the Franco dictatorship. His standing in the Catalan literary pantheon has been enhanced in recent years, as the appearance of our translation of his English journal testifies.

Alan Yates, born in Northampton in 1944, studied Modern Languages at the University of Cambridge. From 1968 he taught in the Department of Hispanic Studies at the University of Sheffield where he was promoted in 1990 to a personal Chair in Catalan Studies. Early retirement in 1999 enabled him to cultivate his enthusiasm for literary translation (exclusively Catalan-English), for which he has been awarded various distinctions.