As the war turns in the nationalists favour, and the refugees flee to the border with France, the writing is especially strong: Allende really gives you a sense of the human cost of the conflict, especially through Victor’s brother Gullieme. The descriptions of the Spanish civil war felt vivid and real. I’m also keen to hear about the Irishmen who fought for the Republicans, the fifth brigade, although of course the church supported Franco and encouraged young Irish men to join the fascists. I've always had an interest in the Spanish civil war and having visited Catalonia and the Basque country, always always keen to learn more, especially about the independence movement. ‘A long petal of the sea’ is historical fiction at its best, covering such a fascinating period from the Spanish civil war through to the right wing takeover by Pinochet in Chile and after. We also meet a young girl called Roser, an ex-goat herder and music student, and these two will be at the centre of the book Historical Fiction

Before, you have the Spanish Civil war, which is where we meet Victor, a doctor tending the Republican wounded (the book opens with the most incredibly imagery of him massaging a heart). The journey of the Winnipeg is at the heart of ‘a long petal of the sea’ by Isabel Allende, acting as a before and after. They had also just avoided WW2, which had just broken out. They had been living in desperate conditions in camps in France and Neruda had arranged for them to escape to Chile, the place he described as ‘a long petal of the sea and wine and snow’ where they landed in the port of Valparíso on September the third, 1939. The ‘poem’ to which the poet Pablo Neruda refers is the French steamer ‘The Winnipeg’ which he chartered to transport 2,200 refugees who had escaped from Franco and the Spanish civil war. The critics may erase all of my poetry but this poem that I today remember, nobody will be able to erase.

A long petal by the sea