Vicky Hayward

bio

This site is a small sampling of Vicky Hayward’s work as a freelance writer, food historian, book editor and arts consultant. The projects are grouped around topics and live issues to give an overview of subject areas.

Vicky grew up in England, where she learned to cook professionally before studying history at the University of Cambridge, specialising in social and cultural history viewed through different methodologies. Her interest in history shaped her early work as a senior book editor at Weidenfeld & Nicolson and at Booth-Clibborn Editions, the London-based publisher of cutting-edge visual books. She also lived and worked in Vanuatu, working on a research project and later as an interpreter, translator and editor. As a features writer in London from 1986 she covered popular culture, social issues, food, the arts and women’s issues for the British press. She first got to know Spain as a child on family holidays and her writing brought her to Madrid in 1990. Features for international media since then have covered social issues and visual arts. Her work on food and gastronomy has included regular essays for Spain Gourmetour (1992-2005) and her features on flamenco led on to her collaborations with live flamenco programming, film and audio. She has written three pocket guide-books, many essays for regional and city guides, and she contributed to the relaunched Michelin Spain Green Guide (2011). In recent years her writings on food, culture and history have converged. She revised essays on Spain for the Oxford Companion to Food’s second edition, and in 2016 she finished her modern retelling of New Art of Cookery, a seminal 1745 Spanish cookbook in which she contextualised her English translation of the book against a longer narrated social history, accompanied by modern versions of the dishes. In 2017 she was honoured to receive the Jane Grigson Trust Award and the Aragonese Academy of Gastronomy’s Award for Best Gastronomic Research. In 2018, following publication of the Spanish edition, she received the Premio Nacional de Gastronomía for Best Publication from the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, and in 2019 the newly created Juan Altamiras award. In 2020 a new essay on Altamiras was highly commended in the Sophie Coe Prize for Food History.

She is represented by Andrew Nurnberg Associates, London.

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Copyright notice
Other than where it is expressly stated that the right in any work published on this website belongs to a third party, all intellectual property and copyrights in the website, and the articles, features, material and information published on its pages are vested in Vicky Hayward.Copyright in some quotations available on this website belong to third parties, as named, and should not be reproduced unless the relevant third-party copyright owner has given consent, and nothing in this notice should constitute either an express or an implied licence to reproduce these documents.Every effort has been made to respect copyright material and we trust that no copyright has been infringed. The website kindly requests to hear from any copyright holders not correctly acknowledged here. All printed articles and project reference images have been printed as they appeared in the public domain.

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Vicky Hayward here asserts her moral rights as the author of all the features, essays, material and information as written by her and included in this site.

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For further information or to ask for a licence to use any of the material on this website, please contact www.vickyhayward.com

thanks

Special thanks go to JuanJo Tejado for designing and engineering this site; to Edward and Julia Booth-Clibborn, Insight Guides, and Anna Edwards-Stuart; and to all colleagues, family and friends.

You can find me on: or www.andrewnurnberg.com

Recent Projects

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article: “Barra Libre”

When Valencia’s newspaper Las Provincias invited me to contribute a piece on a topic linked to gastronomy, I took the chance to comment on Spanish restaurants’ knack for warm-hearted, unfussy, stylish hospitality. (2021)

A todo el mundo no le gusten los homenajes, pero sus mensajes pueden encender chispas inesperadas. Sucedió hace un mes….

book: “New Art of Cookery. A Spanish Friar’s Kitchen Notebook”

A retelling of a 1745 friary cookbook for the 21st century, New Art of Cookery sets lay friar Juan Altamiras’s witty, brief original within a narrated social history contextualising his remix of popular cookery and contemporary influences. In my new text I suggest why Altamiras’s work represented an influential step towards the modern Spanish kitchen. The book also includes my 21st-century home-cooks’ guidelines encouraging everyone to recreate the dishes, and recipes from two dozen invited chefs and cooks who represent the richness of collective conversation in Spanish popular cookery and alta cocina. (Rowman & Littlefield, June 2017)

To read more: www.nuevoartedelacocina.com

Winner of the Jane Grigson Trust Award, 2017

book: “Nuevo arte de la cocina española”

The Spanish edition of the English book (see above) used a beautifully understated graphic design to highlight culinary themes, but the social historical context and modern cookery guidelines were also warmly received although food history is not yet a familiar area of study in Spain. I designed the narrated history to unpack themes not only for academics, but also for chefs and a general audience, albeit always with a scholarly base. Unexpectedly, and remarkably, the guest recipes by alta cocina chefs in the Spanish edition have gone on to open a valuable new area of research and experiment. (Editorial Ariel, October 2017)

To read more: www.nuevoartedelacocina.com

Winner of the Jane Grigson Trust Award, 2017

essays: “Petits Propos Culinaires” book reviews

It is always a pleasure to review books on Spanish food history for the world’s longest running journal of food history, founded by Alan Davidson in 1980 and now edited by Tom Jaine. (2018-2022)

To read more: www.prospectbooks.co.uk

essays: Sophie Coe Prize for Food History

The first Covid confinement gave me time to write a 10,000-word academic essay, “And In the morning the Cook … shall go to his kitchen.” In it I analysed Juan Altamiras’s recipe collection through the methodological prisms used between the lines of the book. This also gave me the opportunity to comment on potential research areas for Spanish food history, especially collaborations between chefs and historians. Delighted that it was highly commended among a bumper crop of stellar essays! (2020)

To read more: www.sophiecoeprize.wordpress.com

showcooking / talk: “Modernity in Juan Altamiras” With Kiko Moya. Madrid Fusion

In 2019 I was invited to share the stage at Madrid Fusion with chef Kiko Moya of Alicantino restaurant L’Escaleta (Michelin **) for a presentation blending culinary history and contemporary creative cocina alta. Kiko, who looks for inspiration in historical details of environment, recreated the iced almond milk dessert he created for “Nuevo arte de la cocina española”, but he also added this rice recipe, which highlights many of the book’s themes. (2019)

Here is the video, courtesy of and with thanks to Madrid Fusion: Youtube link

talk / presentation: “La Cultura del frío”

In 2020 the Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food called for papers responding to the theme Food and the Environment: the Dynamic Relationship Between Food Practices and Nature, and I chose as a topic Spain’s little known cultura del frío. Serendipitously, the Symposium was delayed until 2022, by which time I had accessed regional research in order to open up new devolved perspectives. (2021-2022)

Flamenco: Song, Guitar, Dance, Life

article: “Antonio Gades, Steps to Freedom”

When Antonio Gades took his company to London in a revival of his landmark choreography Carmen, I interviewed him for The Sunday Times. By this time he was widely known as a dancer, but the politics inspiring his work were generally sidelined. I could only learn and admire. (1996)

I don’t move forward in flamenco, I go backwards,” says Antonio Gades decisively. “Where there is a flamenco singer and a guitar, you kill their power by adding an orchestral arrangement. On the other hand I like flamenco dance set in a different context ….
Gades has always cut an unusual figure in flamenco. Born into a communist family – “but not a Gypsy one” – he moved from Elda, a shoemaking town in Alicante, to Madrid as a young child following his father’s imprisonment there for his politics. At the age of eleven, he went to work to support the family and, five years later, turned to dance in the hope that it might bring in a decent income ….
Gades’s company, which he set up in 1963, has flourished, growing from three to thirty-one dancers, and received many accolades, but it has remained unsubsidised and unsponsored. “Freedom is expensive, it’s not given to you,” he comments curtly. He has now been creating choreography freely for over three decades and many would say his most recent work, Fuenteovejuna, is his masterpiece ….“Yes, it’s true there’s a real afición for genuine flamenco today and it’s seen differently – now it’s in opera houses and universities. But beyond that I don’t see anything that has changed significantly.

article: “Japan’s Spanish affair”

At any one time, around 100,000 Japanese are studying flamenco song, dance or guitar, either on home-ground or in Spain. An invitation to write an essay on the subject for The European gave me the chance to research the closeness between Japanese stage arts and flamenco, and to talk to the Japanese artists who had risked all to study in Spain. (1995)

Perhaps what is most surprising for onlookers is that the Andalusians take their Japanese counterparts very seriously. In the late 1980s the Seville Bienale hosted a three-day festival of their flamenco, and today the work of artists like Shoji Kojima and Yoko Komatsubara remain influential.
Those who have lived within both Spanish and Japanese cultures are not as surprised by the phenomenon. “I think there are good cultural reasons for the fascination,” says María Dolores Rodriguez, a teacher at Madrid’s official language school. She lived in Japan for ten years. “Flamenco expresses intense emotions in a highly disciplined form. It shares the Japanese ideas of freeing ki, or energy, and of kata, the body-sculptured fixed positions struck in kabuki and noh theatre, in mijomboyu dancing and martial arts. At the same time, in flamenco performers have more freedom.”
Atsuko, aged 22, who came to study dance in Jerez, agrees. “In flamenco the technique is nothing unless you have feeling. You have to be yourself. That’s what I like. When I’m angry I dance best. It’s the exact opposite of what we’re used to in Tokyo.

article: “The Ballads of Cordoba Gaol: A Prison Workshop”

If I had to pick one privileged work experience from my whole time in Spain, it would be the series of visits I made to Córdoba prison’s flamenco workshop and song contest. It was the brainchild of three exceptional people: a guitarist, a prison educator, and Córdoba prison’s director. (1999)

The workshop’s and contest’s success are rooted in the hidden cultural wealth of Spain’s prison communities and the commitment of those who created the project. Prison director Francisco Velasco raises its scanty local funding. Guitarist and maestro Rafael Treñas teaches for just 40,000 pesetas (£200.00) a month, less than his fees for a single performance. Prison educator Antonio Estévez has often dipped into his own pocket to cover costs when the budget hasn’t covered them. No coincidence, perhaps, that all three grew up in or near Gitano barrios of the Andalusian cities where flamenco, as intertwined song, guitar and dance, have evolved over at least three centuries and are a daily element of life, often binding communities.
For Estévez, who had the original idea for the workshop, its success is rooted in the strength of the prison’s Gitano culture. “It works because it’s based on the prisoners’ real world. You won’t persuade most Gitanos to do a class on computing or gardening, but flamenco can inspire them to dedícate long hours to studying. By 1995, when I first visited the workshop, it had reached such a high standard that some students were being coached for public performance.

article: “Women in Flamenco”

My first long feature on flamenco involved an epic journey with photographer Cristina García Rodero to Jérez and Seville where we met impressively strong women: cantaoras (singers) Maria Soleá and Dolores Agujetas, bailaoras (dancers) Manuela Carrasco and Tibu Lebart. The way they explained and discussed their work undermined the clichés projected on to flamenco. (Marie Claire magazine, 1993)

When my grandfather sung at night, my grandmother would open her arms and dance,” recalls María Soleá, aged 63, from Cádiz. “How she danced with her arms! And if somebody we didn’t know appeared at the door, my grandfather would say, “Close the door, girl, for I don’t want strangers watching my wife and children sing and dance.”
While María’s family all sang and dance at fiestas, she was the first of their women to perform for money. “I didn’t have special dresses or anything like that, and I danced in my everyday rope-soled shoes.”

dialogue: “Eva Yerbabuena & Paco Jarana: Dialogue”

Conversation between flamencos can be more revealing than anything written on the subject of flamenco. When I came upon Ray Gun’s magazine dialogues between indie musicians they offered a good model for experiment. Eva and Paco were the natural starting point for the series. A few years later we extended the conversation, which gave a chance for reflection. (Flamenco International magazine, 2002-2007)

V: Eva, you’re often quoted as saying that just one flamenco performance you saw with your father made you decide to dance. I think Manuela Carrasco and Concha Vargas were performing?
Eva: Yes, but it wasn’t the baile (dance) that impressed me as much as the cante (singing). I’ve always felt song is the mother of all flamenco. Take Paco de Lucía’s work. You listen to his music and say, “Madre mía”, how blessed he is by the gift of knowing how to listen. I don’t think I’d be a dancer if I could sing.
Paco: It may not be immediately clear, but we build our performances around the palos – the soleá, seguiriya and so on. Infact, we try to pick forgotten song forms for dance … the trilla, the mirabrás and so on. Every songform is its own world. There are rhythm, harmonies, melodies, but also colours and landscape, light, perhaps those of Cádiz or Triana. A songform’s lyrics also emerge from a particular situation, but it’s up to us as performers to reveal that if we want to.
Eva: But I also feel, as a dancer, the form of a seguiriya or indeed any palo, must also come from a personal search. Not everyone wants to do that, but you need to share a personal search and what you have lived within your dance.

dialogue: “Sordera and family”

Sordera was one of Jérez’s great masters of cante. When his son Vicente released an album, they invited me to Chiclana to record a dialogue and Sordera’s brother, Sordera Chico, came along too. It was a rare chance to talk to a family which was helped to define flamenco song and is still doing so. (Flamenco International magazine, 1999)

V: What was recording like when you were younger?
Sordera: We’d have two days to make an LP. That is, two days with a guitarist and a couple of palmeros. That was it. I would write the cantes for the album on a piece of paper and order them as we went along. Vicente would come along and do palmas. He was just a boy. We’d go to the studio in the afternoon, open our throats, perhaps with the help of a whisky, and start. We didn’t rehearse. The labels worked that way to save money. The artists took it for granted and worked around it.
V: Flamenco’s so difficult to capture well on record, isn’t it?
Vicente: It’s very hard to keep the warmth alive in a recording studio. A lot of people say it’s a thing of the past. There’s a record called “Así Canta Jerez”, recorded thirty years ago, which is wonderful. My father, Terremoto, Sernita and four other cantaores sing on it.
Sordera: Nobody believes it when I tell them it was recorded in four hours!
Sordera Chico: But of course that’s when it works … when people are enjoying themselves.

film / documentary: “Flamenco Women” (directed by Mike Figgis)

Mike came to Madrid in 1997 with his team with the idea of casting, setting up and filming an experimental flamenco dance performance. He returned a few months later following some detailed pre-production, and, taking the Circulo de Bellas Artes as a base, he filmed five days of rehearsals and the show, which the artists performed for an invited audience of family, friends and press. Working within a brief window of time was his way to ensure pace. “Figgis lets the rhythms and the women’s faces speak for themselves and the result is mesmerising.” (The Guardian) Artists included Eva Yerbabuena, Sara Baras, El Viejín, Guadiana, Eva Andújar and Lucky Losada. (BBC2 / VPRO, 1999)

Here’s a clip from the video: Youtube link

film / documentary: “Hotel” (directed by Mike Figgis)

In his big-screen movie “Hotel”, filmed in Venice, Mike created cameos for Eva Yerbabuena and Paco Jarana, who played themselves, with Burt Reynolds and Ornella Muti as their agents. The flamenco highlight was a brief but stunning segment of Eva and Paco filmed simultaneously on four cameras. (2001)

film / IMAX: “Pulse. A Stomp Odyssey” (directed by Steve McNicholas & Luke Treadwell)

Stomp’s journey through world rhythms in music, dance, fiestas and body percussion included a visit to Andalusia where Eva Yerbabuena chose a rooftop in Granada’s Generalife, within the Alhambra complex, as the location to film a choreography made-to-measure for IMAX film. The production, involving an overhead camera, was immaculately planned, but the clip needed many takes as the sun climbed in the sky. (2001)

To view the clip: PULSE: A Stomp Odyssey

live flamenco: Flamenco at the Barbican 01

London music producer Serious had been working on the programming of the “Thousand Year Journey. A Festival of Gypsy Music and Culture” at the Barbican Arts Centre for several years before they approached me for help with the programming of cante jondo, to be showed in its most expressive dimensions in the festival’s closing performance. The Fernández family played the first half, and José Mercé, with Moraito Chico and Piraña, delivered a stunning set in the second half. It was one of those nights to remember. (2000)

live flamenco: Flamenco at the Barbican 02

Following the success of the Thousand Year Journey season, Serious suggested a weekend focus on the highest-quality flamenco with a contemporary feel. Again they chose a double bill, this time with Eva Yerbabuena & Compañía opening the festival, and guitarist Vicente Amigo closing it in a six-person set. In between were free lobby performances and talks. (2001)

live flamenco: Bath International Music Festival

The project aimed to show flamenco exactly as it was performed in Spain – for example, with no intervals – and to include educational work like dance master-classes and a schools percussion project. The festival director looked for programming, coordination and fund-raising, and for three years I worked with the Centro de Arte Flamenco Amor de Dios on a not-for-profit, no salary basis. Artists included Juana Amaya with guests, José Luis Montón with Ara Malikian, Elena Andújar and Piraña, Belén Fernandez and Domingo Ortega, and Ana Salazar. (1998-2000).

live flamenco: “Just Tell the Truth”

In his celebratory opening of the Royal Opera House’s alternative programme, Mike Figgis asked invited guests to comment on the state of culture via personal performance. Among them were Eva Yerbabuena and Paco Jarana, who created a raw, intimate, direct show with percussionist Manuel Muñoz, Pajaro. All of them joined the finale with the artists on the main stage. (2011)

live flamenco: “Novísimo”, Manila (produced by Instituto Cervantes)

The Instituto Cervantes wanted to give promising young artists the experience of creating a show. Invitations to programme were given to the Festival del Cante de las Minas de La Unión and Centro de Arte Flamenco Amor de Dios, and they chose the artists for cante and baile. Logistics were not easy, but the artists emerged with new friendships. (2001)
Artists included Jose Maya, Alfonso Losa, Rocío Bazán with Francisco Javier Jimeno, Paco Cruz, and José Anillo.

Food: Our Food, Our World

article: “A Journey Round Spanish Organics”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 1999

More info coming soon.

article: “All At The Same Table” Euskadi’s Gastronomic Societies

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 1997

More info coming soon.

article: “Alternative Agriculture: The Organic Larder and Bodega”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 1999-2000

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article: “Andalusia: Seville and Cordoba”

Departures, London, 1988

More info coming soon.

article: “Andoni Luis Aduriz: Kitchen Values After Adrià”

Foods from Spain, New York, 2001

More info coming soon.

article: “Antoní Escribà, Chocolate Sculptor”

The Guardian, London, 1991

More info coming soon.

article: “A Prince Among Pigs: Ibérico”

Lookin, Malaga, 1991

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article: “Artful Acidity: Vinegars”

Foods from Spain, New York, 2004

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article: “Barcelona’s Bold Foodsters”

Taste, London, 1989

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article: “Big Cheese, Little Cheese: Liébana”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2003

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article: “Bringing Home the Jamón”

Taste, London, 1988

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article: “Cheese Terroirs, A Tour”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2003-04

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article: “Chocolateros y Xocolateros ….”

Spain Gourmetour / Spain Gourmetour Ireland, Madrid, 2003

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article: “Cliffhanger: Percebes Hunting”

Lookin, Malaga, 1994

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article: “Culinary Characteristics: Food for Thought”

The Times, London, 1989 (with Isabelle Anscombe)

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article: “Cultivating Cuisine: Learning to Cook”

Sunday Telegraph Magazine, London, 1984

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article: “Four Hands, Sushi and Tapas”

Web original, Madrid, 2015

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article: “Fresh. Spanish Chefs” – I and II

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2002
(with, among others, Andoni Luis Aduriz, Sergi Arola, Elena Arzak, Quique Dacosta, Aitor Elizegi, Ramón Freixa, José Carlos García, Isaac Salaberria, Jordi Parramón, Pepe Rodríguez Rey, Marcelo Tejedor)

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article: “Garlic: food, culture and medicine”

Herbs, London, 1997 / Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 1996

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article: “In Search of A Speciality: Balearic Food”

The Balearics, Insight Guide, London 1989

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article: “Lejanos del Mundanal Ruido”

Last of the Independents, London, 2014

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article: “Letter from Madrid”

The Good Food Guide, London, 1992

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article: “Licking the Rest: Chupa Chups”

The Broadsheet, Madrid, 2002

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article: “Nadal: Galician Christmas”

Guild of Food Writers, London, 1992

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article: “Naughty, but it’s Natural: Food Colouring”

The Guardian, London, 1989

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article: “Olive Oil: Art & Science”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 1999

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article: “Olive Oil: Growing Towards Perfection”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2005

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article: “Piquillo Peppers: the Magic of Wood-Grilling”

Spain Gourmetour / Irish Food and Wine, Madrid & Dublin, 1984

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article: “Putting on the Style: Tapas in Madrid”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2003

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article: “Rice: the fields of the Doñana”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2003

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article: “Saffron”

Herbs (Journal of the Herb Society), London, 1996

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article: “Spain: Land of the Long Lunch Hour”

BBC Magazine, London, 2003

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article: “Tapas Express, Grazing with Friends”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 1995

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article: “The Gold to Green Mosaic” (DOP oils)

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2001

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article: “The New Varietals” (Olive oils)

Foods from Spain, New York, 2003

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article: “Vineyard Routes: Galicia”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2003

More info coming soon.

essay: Vocabularies in Euskadi: Language & Food

Journal of the International Wine and Food Society, London, 1988

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article: “What’s Cooking in Valencia?”

Foods from Spain, New York, 2006

More info coming soon.

book editing: “A Kitchen in Corfu”

By James Chatto and W. L. Martin. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1987
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Country House Cooks: Medieval & Modern”

By Annette Hope, Tom Jaine, Alison Ross, Jennifer Stead, C. Anne Wilson, Alison Ross, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993
As series and commissioning editor.

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book editing: “Eating In”

By Fay Maschler, Bloomsbury, 1989
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “In an Irish Country Kitchen”

By Clare Connery. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1992
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Life & Food in Bengal”

By Chitrita Banerji. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1987
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Life & Food in the Caribbean”

By Cristine Mackie. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1991
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Life & Food in the Dordogne”

By James Bentley. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1986
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Life & Food in a Tuscan Valley, The Tuscan Year”

By Elizabeth Romer. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London / Grove/Atlantic, New York, 1989
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Soul Food”

By Sheila Ferguson. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1989
As series and commissioning editor.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Ten Vineyard Lunches”

By Richard Olney. Interlink and Ebury Press, London, 1988

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book editing: “The Creative Cook”

By James Kempston. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993

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book editing: “The Independent Cook”

By Jeremy Round (of The Independent newspaper). Barry & Jenkins, London, 1989

More info coming soon.

book editing: “The Real Meat Cookbook”

By Frances Bissell. Chatto & Windus, London, 1992

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book editing: “The Times Cookbook”

By Frances Bissell (of The Times newspaper). Chatto & Windus, London, 1993

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book editing: “Very Food”

By Silvia Ziranek. Bookworks, London, 1987

More info coming soon.

book writing: “Cuisine Extraordinaire: Real French Food”

Conran-Octopus & Heinemann, London / Shelton Books, New York.

The base of this anthology was Jacqueline Saulnier’s work as cookery editor for French Marie Claire magazine in the 1970s, the era of nouvelle cuisine, new ethnic influences and food as “la troisième médicine”. Synthesizing and writing linking texts for English readers, consulting with Mme Saulnier and her chosen chefs was a pleasure. (1988)

book writing: Texts on Spanish food. “Oxford Companion to Food”

Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York. 2nd and 3rd editions (2006, 2014)

More info coming soon.

consultancy: Tapas for Tío Pepe

Texts on tapas in home cooking, with ingredients from the UK and recipes from my invited chef guests. Client, Tío Pepe sherry, London. Tapas by Juan Batista Agreda & Dani García; and José Carlos García.

talk / presentation: “A Wild Herb Nursery in Alicante.”

St Catherine’s College, Oxford. A paper on Pedro Pérez Roque’s life and his work classifying and cultivating medicinal herbs for future generations, researched for the symposium on the subject of wild foods, 2004. (Oxford Symposium on Food and History, 2004; printed proceedings 2006).

talk / presentation: “Celebrating with Altamiras: Fiesta’s Spirit in Food.”

St Catherine’s College, Oxford. A paper on the fiesta calendar in friary and popular 18th-century Spanish cooking for the symposium on “Celebration”. (Oxford Symposium on Food and History, 2011; printed proceedings 2012)

talk / presentation: “Spain’s Hunger Culture: Picaros, Protestors and Cooks.”

A paper for the symposium on the subject of “Food, Hunger and Conflict”, organised by the History of Food Collection at the Allard Pierson Collections of the City of Amsterdam. The paper looked at the high visibility of hunger in Spanish culture from the picaresque to modern times, including its representation in three narrative cookbooks, but its invisibility (and masking by one cookbook) during the 1940s “Silent Famine”, as revealed by historians since 1995. (Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food, January 2015)

talk / presentation: “Franciscan Values in Spanish Culinary Culture: from Eiximenis to Altamiras”

A paper for the symposium on the subject of “Food and Power” held at Dublin Institute of Technology. In it I explored the long continuitities between reformist Spanish Franciscan food philosophy, to which Altamiras’s cookbook belongs, early modern popular cookery, and the flowering of regional Spanish kitchens in the 19th century. (Dublin Gastronomy Symposium, 2017)

talk / presentation: “Comer con Goya: Gusto y Ética”

A brief presentation on the non-appearance and appearance of food in Goya’s work, considering a logical oppositional approach: the almost complete absence from his early work of food still-lifes, potentially valuable for a struggling artist, may be compared to the powerful presence of hunger in his “Disasters of War” engravings and of popular cookery in his late still-lifes. (Museo Goya, Zaragoza, 2017)

Social Issues: Behind the Scenes

article: “A Foster Mother’s Secret”

The Independent, London, 1986

More info coming soon.

article: “Argentina’s Disappeared: Carla Artés”

Marie Claire, New York / London, 1999

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article: “Cybertown: A Virtual Town Hall”

European Magazine, London, 1996

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article: “Madrid’s Shanty-Town: Cañada Real”

Big Issue, London, Edinburgh and Dublin, 1997

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article: “Picassent, a Mixed Prison Wing”

Marie Claire, London, 1994

More info coming soon.

book editing: “A Social History of England”

By Asa Briggs. Weidenfeld & Nicolson / BCA, London, 1984. (Paperback retitled “Penguin History of Britain and Ireland from Earliest Times to the Present Day”).

The highest-selling hardback in the UK, 1984

book editing: “Custom Stories of Our Islands” (Vanuatu)

By W. Alan Roberts, British education curriculum development, Vanuatu, 1980

More info coming soon.

book editing: “The Santo Rebellion” (Vanuatu)

By John Beasant. Heinemann, Sydney (AU), 1984

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film / documentary: “World’s Oldest Mums” (director: Amanda Blue)

Blast films for Channel 4 / CBC / RTVE2, London, 2009-2011.

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talk / presentation: “Los Gitanos: media access, expression and integration”

Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, Berlin, 2012. A look at the work of Asociación Nacional Presencia Gitana, an independent group doing important work on Gitana history, culture and contemporary issues since 1982.

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Journeys: Of Cultures, Landscapes

article: In Madrid, tapeando

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 2001

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article: “A Wine Journey: Ribera del Duero”

Spain Gourmetour, Madrid, 1999 (with in-house photography)

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article: “Exploring Tarragona”

Insight Guide, Catalonia & Costa Brava, London / Singapore, 1991 (with in-house photography)

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article: “A Night on the Town: Benidorm”

Insight Pocket Guide, London / Singapore, 1991-2001. Photography: Robert Mort.

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article (in book): Formentera

Insight Guide, the Balearics, London / Singapore, 1989. Photography: Bill Wassman

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article (in book): “Santiago: in the rain”

Insight Guide, Northern Spain, London-Singapore, 1998

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article (in book): Rural Valencia (Castellón)

Insight Guide, Spain, London / Singapore, 2008

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article (in book): Essays on city barrios

Insight Guide, Madrid, London / Singapore, 2004 (relaunch). Photography: Bill Wassman

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article (in book): Madrid, Castilla La Mancha, C- León

Michelin Green Guide to Spain (relaunch), London, 2011 (with in-house diagrams)

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article (in book): Extramadura, Castilla La Mancha

Eyewitness Guide to Spain / Guía Visual de España, Dorling Kindersley – El País Aguilar, London / Madrid, 1996 (with in-house cartography and architectural diagrams)

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book writing: “Costa Blanca, Alicante, Murcia”

Insight Pocket Guide, London / Hong Kong, 1992 (second editions 1997, 1999, 2003 &c) Photography: Robert Mort.

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book writing: “Madrid”

Insight Pocket Guide: London / Hong Kong, 1996 (second editions 2000, 2003). Photography: Bill Wassman

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book writing: “Valencia”

Insight Pocket Guide: London / Hong Kong, 2006. Photography: Gregory Wrona

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Visual Arts & Culture: Hi and Lo

article: “Almodóvar, Man of La Mancha”

The Age, Melbourne, 1994

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article: “Guggenheim: Bilbao Places its Bets”

European Magazine, London, 1997

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article: “In Paris, Fashion Forecasting”

Sunday Telegraph Magazine, London, 1988

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article: “The Osborne Bull: Advertising as Art”

European, El Mundo (El Dominical), Madrid / London, 1994

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article: “Women Bullfighters”

Marie Claire, London / Istanbul, 1992

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book autobiog writing: “André François”

Essay with André François. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London, 1991

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book autobiog writing-editing: “Hair”

Essay with Guido prefacing photography of his retake on hair and heads in youth culture in the early 1990s. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Photography by David Sims and Stephen Klein. 2000

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book autobiog writing-editing: “Oneness”

With Mariko Mori. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London, and Hatje Cantz Verlag special edition, 2007

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book editing: “Dome” A Photographic Record of the Millennium Dome

By Millenium Dome projects. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by North (2000)

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book editing: “Ecstacity”

By Nigel Coates. Booth-Clibborn Editions for Lawrence King, London. Designed by Why Not (2003)

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book editing: “General Knowledge”

By Stephen Bailey. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by Graphic Thought Facility (2000)

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book editing: “In Soccer Wonderland”

By Julian Germain (words and photography). Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by Why Not (2000)

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book editing: “In The Dark”

By Mike Figgis (words and photography). Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by John Morgan (2000)

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Jerome Robbins, Ballet & Broadway Man”

His official biography by Christine Conrad. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Edited by Deborah Artman. Designed by Pentagram, New York (2000)

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book editing: “Just Above the Mantelpiece”

By Wayne Hemingway. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by Jason Beard at Jonathan Barnbrook (2000)

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Mrs Newton”

By June Newton (Alice Springs). Booth-Clibborn Editions, London, for Phaidon. Designed by Graphic Thought Facility (2000)

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book editing: “Ray Gun, the book”

Compiled by Dean Kuipers. Booth-Clibborn Editions for Simon & Schuster, London and New York. Designed by Chris Ashworth (1997)

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book editing: “Shootback” Kids’ photos from Nairobi

By Lana and Karen Wong. Photographs from the Shootback project. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by Runyon Hall (1999).

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book editing: “Staging A Revolution”

By Peter Chelkowski and Hamid Dabashi. Booth-Clibborn Editions for New York University Press, NY. Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook (1999)

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book editing: “Surface, photographic practice”

Edited-curated by Michael Mack, who selected work by 68 photographers, practitioners in a society in which images have taken centre stage. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Told, Art of Story”

By Simon Aboud and Paul Wilson of Make Believe. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. 32 verbal and visual stories show how story-arcs work in communications. Plus a brief history of story. Art direction by Alan Aboud (2009)

More info coming soon.

book editing: “We Love You” Sonic Art

Book and CD by the @mbassadors. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by Carpet Gypsies (1998)

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book editing: “Young British Art: The Saatchi Decade”

Collected works by Richard Cork, Dick Price, Sarah Kent. Booth-Clibborn Editions, London. Designed by Jonathan Barnbrook (1999)

More info coming soon.

book editing: “A Woman’s Touch. Women in Design from 1860 to the present day.”

By Isabelle Anscombe. Virago, London, 1987.

More info coming soon.

book editing: “The Michelin Building”

By Wendy Hutchinson. Conran Octopus, London, 1987.

More info coming soon.

catalogue editing: “Murillo”, “The Hague School”, “The Orientalists”, “Painting in Napoli” &c

For Weidenfeld Nicolson as publishing partners with The Royal Academy of Arts, London. For co-editions working in conjunction with Museo del Prado and Rijksmuseum &c. (1980s)

More info coming soon.

book editing: “Why? What? How? Effective Design for Communication”

By J. D. Henry. Design Associates, London, 1989.

More info coming soon.