9 Sep, 2022 @ 11:33
1 min read

OLIVE PRESS OPINION: Ma’am, your expats salute you!

El 21 De Abril La Reina Isabel Ii Cumple 96 Años
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From the Olive Press editor Jon Clarke

THE harrowing photo of Prince William arriving at Balmoral yesterday evening told it all.

We didn’t need any words to go with the snap of the future king driving his uncles Andrew and Edward into the royal Scottish residence.

Their grim faces told it all.

It was at that point that we at the Olive Press and, no doubt thousands of expats around Spain, knew that Britain’s longest-serving monarch was dead.

The actual announcement came around an hour later, at exactly 19.40 last night, Spanish time.

While we are no tub-thumping royalist paper, it still left all the staff working on the newsdesk noticeably shaken. Even our Spanish ones.

Quite simply, to echo the words of one of our readers, she was ‘an icon of our time’, a survivor, who showed great empathy and humour throughout her life.

Not only did she live through one world war (and a World Cup win), she had no less than 15 Prime Ministers serving under her.

As the recent TV drama, the Crown, so clearly showed, her life was anything but a bed of roses and she was frequently lonely and dealing with personal tragedy.

Aside from the affairs of her husband and the controversial divorce of Charles, she had to deal with the recent drama surrounding Prince Andrew and her grandson Prince Harry’s very public fallout with the royal family.

But the events that followed the death of Princess Diana were some of the most chaotic in the history of the British Isles.

In short, it was bedlam, and with blanket coverage for months, much of it critical of the Queen, it almost brought an end to her reign.

But she somehow weathered the storm and, at the last minute, did enough to keep the faith of her loyal subjects.

Heaven only knows how Charles will follow this.

Rest in Peace, Ma’am. Your expats salute you!

Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press.

After studying Geography at Manchester University he fell in love with Spain during a two-year stint teaching English in Madrid.

On returning to London, he studied journalism and landed his first job at the weekly Informer newspaper in Teddington, covering hundreds of stories in areas including Hounslow, Richmond and Harrow.

This led on to work at the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, Standard and even the Sun, before he landed his first full time job at the Daily Mail.

After a year on the Newsdesk he worked as a Showbiz correspondent covering mostly music, including the rise of the Spice Girls, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur and interviewed many famous musicians such as Joe Strummer and Ray Manzarak, as well as Peter Gabriel and Bjorn from Abba on his own private island.

After a year as the News Editor at the UK’s largest-selling magazine Now, he returned to work as an investigative journalist in Features at the Mail on Sunday.

As well as tracking down Jimi Hendrix’ sole living heir in Sweden, while there he also helped lead the initial investigation into Prince Andrew’s seedy links to Jeffrey Epstein during three trips to America.

He had dozens of exclusive stories, while his travel writing took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Belarus.

He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Contact jon@theolivepress.es

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