Ilsa Barea: exilio, política, literatura

Ilsa Barea, Austrian journalist born Pollak in Vienna in 1902, was a communist in her early youth, later a socialist militant, and a volunteer in the Civil War. She was posted to the Republic's foreign press office in Madrid during the conflict, where she witnessed the bombing and destruction of the city. In the company of the great exiled writer Arturo Barea, she shared with him the diaspora suffered by so many Republicans. The couple fled to London, and both worked for the BBC's Spanish service. Only four years ago her novel Telefónica was published in Spanish, set in her time working in the censorship office housed in the emblematic Madrid building.

Link to the podcast