3 Aug, 2019 @ 11:54
2 mins read

Revealing new book chronicles the founding of the Olive Press, ‘Spain’s most popular expat newspaper’

TELL-ALL: Jason with his new book all about starting the Olive Press

‘GET us a copy of the Lemon Tree, love!’

Hmm…doesn’t quite have the same ring to it does it? 

But that’s what the Olive Press would have been named were it not for a chatty Spanish olive farmer.

Jason Heppenstall, who originally founded the paper, in the Granada village of Orgiva, reveals in his new book how the night before printing its first edition he was inspired to change the name. 

“None of us were happy with it,” the 48-year-old, from Solihull, recalls today, “then the night before I was chatting to my olive farmer neighbour and he kept saying ‘olive press’ this and ‘olive press’ that and it just clicked.”

It’s just one of dozens of quirky, hilarious and somewhat unbelievable episodes behind the founding of ‘Spain’s now most popular expat newspaper’. 

The Olive Press: News From the Land of Misfits – available to order on Amazon – chronicles the trials and tribulations of launching a newspaper in Spain and the funny mishaps – and characters – that pop up along the way.

“It’s hilarious in parts but also has a bit of an edge to it,” explains Jason, a former energy trader, now based in Cornwall, who wrote the majority of it 10 years ago, two years after selling his majority share to current owner Jon Clarke.

“It was all set to be published but the publisher wanted to cut out all the juicy bits so I said no and put it in a draw and only discovered it again recently,” continues Jason, who returned to the UK, via Denmark with his Danish wife and two children.

And those juicy bits are? Well, you’ll have to read the book to find out, but Jason teases: “After we printed our first edition, we saw famous expat Driving Over Lemons author Chris Stewart walking along the street with a copy of it – except he was using it to hold his greasy churros!”

Who would have thought that almost 15 years later the paper would be working on a campaign with Stewart in his hometown of Orgiva in a bid to stop a string of electrical pylons from destroying the picturesque region?

“I’m so proud of the paper and what it has become,” added Jason, “we originally launched it to give people and the expat community in the Alpujarras region a voice and obviously it has grown a lot since then.

FULL CIRCLE: The very first edition and this week’s latest

“But it’s great how things seem to have come full circle at the same time as me publishing a book about it all.”

The current owner Jon bought into the paper within its first few months alongside Jason and co-founder Mark, a Yorkshireman. 

Clarke, who initially launched a Western Andalucia edition having worked for 10 years in Fleet Street, said: “I have never had anything less than the ultimate respect for what Jason and Mark did – as I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone – and the foundations they laid were invaluable, particularly the ethos of the Olive Press being environmental in slant and highly geared to highlighting local corruption in what was, then, one of Europe’s most corrupt countries.”

Look out for a serialisation of the book in the Olive Press coming soon.

Laurence Dollimore

Laurence Dollimore is a Spanish-speaking, NCTJ-trained journalist with almost a decade’s worth of experience.
The London native has a BA in International Relations from the University of Leeds and and an MA in the same subject from Queen Mary University London.
He earned his gold star diploma in multimedia journalism at the prestigious News Associates in London in 2016, before immediately joining the Olive Press at their offices on the Costa del Sol.
After a five-year stint, Laurence returned to the UK to work as a senior reporter at the Mail Online, where he remained for two years before coming back to the Olive Press as Digital Editor in 2023.
He continues to work for the biggest newspapers in the UK, who hire him to investigate and report on stories in Spain.
These include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mail Online, Mail on Sunday and The Sun and Sun Online.
He has broken world exclusives on everything from the Madeleine McCann case to the anti-tourism movement in Tenerife.

GOT A STORY? Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es or call +34 951 273 575 Twitter: @olivepress

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Previous Story

Councillors ‘rebel’ to hold true to the promise made with the voters of Mijas, writes Bill Anderson

Next Story

VICTORY: Olive Press article ‘pivotal’ in release of six dogs locked in an abandoned house on Spain’s Costa Blanca

Latest from Granada

Go toTop

More From The Olive Press