Why a Booktrail?
1930s, WW2: A wonderful story set against the backdrop of Spain and Morocco and gives a real insight in to the politics, plotting and spying of the time.
The Seamstress
What you need to know before your trail
‘The Seamstress’ starts in Madrid in the 1930s and is told from the perspective of Sira Quiroga, a talented seamstress who is engaged to Ignacio. Ignacio is a nice young man, loyal and wants to look after her but when she meets the charming Ramiro Arribas she breaks off her engagement.
As Spain enters a period of instability and civil war looms, she allows herself to be persuaded by Arribas into leaving her homeland and starting a new life in Morocco.
Trapped in Morocco by these debts, and by the worsening political situation in Spain, Sira finds it hard to survive.
Travel Guide
The Tetouan region in Northern Morocco was a former Spanish colony and is a great setting in both the time and place – history and stunning landscapes evoke a time and place we’d not read about before. And certainly not like this. Th ebook reads as a painting full of colour and rich texture.
Many of the figures are based on real life historical figures -Sir Samuel Hoare, the UK’s “Ambassador on a Special Mission,” British embassy employee and covert spy Alan Hillgarth, and, most important of all, Juan Luis Beigbeder, first seen as High Commissioner of Spanish Morocco, then later as Franco’s Foreign Minister in Madrid.
The idea of visiting a sewing factory in the backstreets of Madrid too is very enticing. Women buying supplies such as material and buttons evokes busy Spanish streets and a lovely evocative war time story with the intricate detail of the Spanish women working and living within them.
Where Next?
