Olive Press news review of the year
Twelve months of corruption, environmental matters and the best English-language coverage of the local issues that matter, the Olive Press brings you an indispensable guide
An island of cold in a sea of warmth
Home to mainland Spain’s highest peaks, the Sierra Nevada is a treasure trove of rare plant life and animals
“Only ghosts will live there”
Dream homes left unfinished in La Alpujarra as agent refuses to return deposits
Predatory behaviour and the destruction of Iberia’s coast
Charles Schoengrund draws interesting parallels between the twin disappearances of Madelaine McCann and the coastline of Iberia
The true cost of being cheap
As the furniture superstore opens in Málaga, the Olive Press asks if Ikea goes far enough to combat the exploitation of child labour in its
Oil spillage poisons aquifer
A GRANADA court is investigating how 120,000 tonnes of a vegetable-based contaminant was allowed to enter underground water supplies. Mayor of Atarfe Víctor Sánchez and
The gentle giants of the wasp world
Man’s misunderstanding of the hornet has led to the insect becoming almost extinct in certain parts of Europe
The man who changed history
Emilio Silva laid the foundations for the recent law which denounces Franco – his uprising and his dictatorship – and recognises the Republicans who were
“My grandfather was buried in a roadside ditch”
Emilio Silva, director of the ARMH (Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory) shares the Civil War story of his own grandfather with Lisa Tilley
It’s in the climate, stupid
Following last issue in which Fiona Flores Watson attacked the slick, corporate image of the Climate Project, after meeting him in Nashville this year, Rosie
Andalucia and the Strategy for Coastal Sustainability
AT the end of October, Madrid made an announcement of a radical change in the policy that has seen Spain’s coast become saturated in concrete.
Remembering Franco
Writing exclusively for the Olive Press, Franco biographer Paul Preston claims the legacy of the dictator’s rule has come to nothing as Spain embraces democracy.
Justice defeats the conspiracy
As those responsible for the train bomb attacks in Madrid are brought to justice, Carlos Pranger believes Spain’s politicians should respect the victims and stop
Drowning in a desert of plastic
There is a certain irony, claims Bob Maddox, that not only do the plastic greenhouses of the coast of Almería and Granada suck the land
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Climate Change*
With the news that up to 85 per cent of Andalucia is under threat from desertification, in this simple Q&A scientist AZZAM QASRAWI explains the
Climate undergoes sea change
Bob Maddox assess the findings of a report claiming the oceans are not absorbing as much carbon dioxide as they once did
Saints and souls and modern day ghouls
For Theresa O’Shea, Halloween in Spain is a time for visiting departed loved ones and eating roasted chestnuts
The dehesas of Extremadura
The size of Switzerland, the region of Extremadura is home to farmland unique to Spain and endangered animals such as the lynx and imperial eagle
A local paedophile, not the McCanns killed Maddie
As the parents of Missing Madeleine claim their innocence on Spanish TV, the Olive Press’ Jon Clarke – the first British newspaper journalist on the
Dancing bears in Spain cause public outcry
In today’s Europe, Lisa Tilley asks should it be legal to force a wild animal to perform human tricks
Dispatches from a place long lost
In the 50th anniversary since its first publication, Carlos Pranger looks at the events that led to seminal book, South from Granada
Why do some want us to forget?
If Spain’s judges can chase, hound and illegitimise Latin American dictators, why can’t they do the same to their own asks Carlos Pranger WITH the
The Queen of Spain’s literary past
Hemingway for lunch, fascists hiding in the bathroom, beatnik blondes staying for years. After the Olive Press reported that Gerald Brenan’s house is in danger
Drowning in water, bricks and mortar
As the big clean up of Almuñecar begins, Bob Maddox draws parallels between the flood destruction wrought in the town and that in sleepy Lynmouth
The Search for Lorca’s Grave
Carlos Pranger WHEN the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Gerald Brenan was living with his wife Gamel Woolsey in Churriana, a village west
Hollywood star’s Marbella home closer to demolition
It appears the Spanish justice system has finally caught up with actor Antonio Banderas