Book, Interview, Reflections

Hello subscribers (and welcome new ones)!

Most of you will have recognized the image above – yes it is my book, but in the Spanish translation. I was sent a couple of copies this week. It’s the first version in another language to come out, in parallel with the English original, to be released on 26 October.

I know there’s also a Russian version in the making, but I don’t know when that is scheduled to be released. A German version would be my job, that’s in my contract, but the German branch of Laurence King Publishing (LK Verlag) haven’t yet decided on if/when they may want it. I’d relish the challenge. As a translation it should be quite easy, because as the author of the original I obviously know precisely what it should say. But there would have to be adaptations, especially in the chapters about German-speaking countries, where I would have to explain less and at the same time may need to be more precise.

My Spanish is pretty minimal, well, let’s be honest: it’s next to non-existent (beyond the “si, no, gracias” minimum). So I can’t actually read the Spanish version of my book, but I leafed through it to see if there were any obvious differences. Mostly it looks identical in terms of layout and photos and it’s also precisely the same number of pages. But I looked a bit closer at the Spain chapters and it was in the one about Valle de los Caidos where I noticed a difference. In the original I mentioned the fact that the remains of Franco, Spain’s dictator of four decades, who used to be buried there, were in October 2019 moved “elsewhere”. Well, the Spanish translators made this clearer and specified “cementerio de Mingorrubio”, which is just north of Madrid. So I learned something new from my own book!
  

On Friday I did an interview with Talk Radio Europe, who happen also to be based in Spain. Hence we talked a bit about Gibraltar, for example. In general it was a really good interview, the one I’m most pleased with so far. Much better than anticipated. As it was live, I admit I was a little nervous beforehand, but that quickly evaporated once we got talking. And of course it was good promotion for my book – the title of which the interviewer lavishly threw into the conversation. I should be given an MP3 file of the interview and a link to an online version, which I can then put in one of the coming newsletters so you can listen to it for yourselves.
  

On the DT Blog, the third instalment of themed posts presented in the most recent poll (which didn’t have a winner, hence all four options are being fielded) went up, namely “Dark Tourism & Reflections”. I love photographing reflections – be it in glass, water or whatever – and I have tons of such photos in my archive, so the selection of just 25 examples was tough. But I love the result. Visually, it’s one of my favourite blog posts yet. Do take a look! Next up will be “Dark Tourism & Nuclear Power Stations”.
  

On my main website not so much new has happened, just a couple more chapters about those Japanese American Relocation Centers went up, namely Minidoka and Tule Lake. Now I have just one more chapter to finish (Heart Mountain), then that topic will be done for me.

Next I will have to write up new chapters and updates about the Baltics based on my field trip to Riga and Tallinn in the summer.
  

But so much for now.

Have a good week and, as always, stay safe!

Best,

Peter