Sleepless Spain.

1948. London, Cobbett Press, 1948. 8vo. Publisher's black boards, spine lettered in red; in the original illustrated dust-wrapper (not price-clipped); pp. 207; light chipping to top edge of wrapper, more substansive creasing and tears to bottom edge; light marks to spine and lower panel; even toning to paper-stock, as usual; a good copy. First edition. The author of this work, 'Victor Alba, … never existed, despite a volume of published evidence' (The Guardian, online). Pere Pagès, who used Alba as his political pseudonym, was a Spanish communist, and was later exiled to France after the end of the Spanish Civil War. This book is a first-hand account of Franco's Spain by a Spanish journalist. He is somebody who knows Spain intimately, as not many people ever could. With experience in Spanish concentration camps, to hiking the Pyrenees's scenic paths, and working in illegal printing presses. Alba paints his contemporary Spain in a true, bare light. He provides a vivid picture of both sides, of rich racketeers and exploiters, of those who are met by guests of the regime, Church hierarchy and friends of the regime. The author's sympathies lie with the ordinary people of Spain. Pages had been George Orwell's guide on his visit to Barcelona, and this book was published during his imprisonment in Franco's Spain.