The Fair was buzzing, with a great atmosphere, involving books, zines, lectures, and lots of speaking in Spanish. The London Spanish Book & Zine Fair, organised by La Tundra Revista, was held at Conway Hall, London, on Sat 4th October 2025.

By Cynthia Lucy Stephens

The theme of the Fair was “FUTURA”, with sessions on “Writing the Future” and “Oracles of Nature”, exploring many topics including fear of a technological dystopian future, and environmental messages from the ancestral river. Amongst the well-known writers to address the book fair was Clara Obligado (Argentina /Spain) whose book Todo lo que crece. Naturaleza y escritura has been translated into English by Fiona Mackintosh (Edinburgh University) as all that grows (X Artists’ Books, 2025).

I had a stall for exhibiting my two books on the Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges, and my own poetry inspired by Spanish themes. I met up with other participants who were at the previous fair I attended two years ago at the Crypt at St Peter’s Church, Walworth. As I entered the room people greeted me, telling me they remembered me. They had come from far and wide, Menorca, Sheffield, Oxfordshire, Edinburgh… There was a great sense of community and bonhomie, and everyone was buying or swapping books with their neighbours. There was so much of interest on view, and it was fascinating to speak directly with an author or publisher. 

Near my table were the two vibrant Spanish ladies who I had met at the Crypt event, Mónica de la Torre and Ana Gomila Domènech, and who had made those two days such fun for me.  On that occasion I acquired a copy of Mónica’s novel Mientras dure el tiempo, involving time-travel in which an archaeologist, a modern London girl, goes on a trip to Chile and falls in love with a sailor from Francis Drake’s “The Golden Hind”. This time I bought her latest novel, set in Edinburgh, my home city. On the previous occasion I acquired Ana’s book El jardín de las delicias, which reprints many of her articles originally published in the newspaper Menorca between 2013 and 2015; these include one entitled “Verde que te quiero verde”, referring to the famous line from Lorca’s poem “Romance sonámbulo”, and another entitled “It’s English Time!”, describing her love of Agatha Christie. This year I bought her Suite Inglesa, a false detective novel set partly in Bloomsbury -near where we were in the Conway Hall, in fact, as I pointed out.

On the other side of my table sat the brilliant poet and translator Timothy Adès. At the Crypt I had acquired his Miracle of Mexico a translation of the Mexican poet Alfonso Reyes, a friend of Borges.  I particularly loved the poem “Iliad Gallop” from the collection Homer in Cuernavaca, which includes the lines: “The high immortals, riding between the earth and sky, | shake bridles chased with ivory and filigreed with gold.” This time I came home with another of Timothy’s poetry translations, from Venezuela. Both books were published by Shearsman Books, which occupied a larger table nearby, manned by publisher Tony Frazer.  At the Crypt I had acquired Edward Moga’s book Streets where to Walk is to Embark about the many Spanish poets in London, which I enjoyed tremendously.  This year I bought Ten Contemporary Spanish Women Poets, also from Shearsman. Both books are translated by Terence Dooley.

The Cervantes Institute was giving away books. I came home with a huge and rather wonderful hardback title published in 1907, Toledo: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the “City of Generations”, by Albert F. Calvert; including over 500 illustrations of the city of Toledo, where I lived during the Transition to Democracy.  I see that this book has a modern incarnation on Project Gutenberg, thankfully, as I would hate to see such a work of historical research lost forever. But I am very happy to have my own genuine copy and thank Maite from the Instituto Cervantes.

I came home with various other books from my neighbours at the nearby tables, including Por las calles de la vida by Felicidad Batista, with a Tango theme, and a section on the Beat Poets; Los fuegos de Kimbolton by Patricia Rodríguez, a novel about Catalina de Aragón;  Visceral by Alberto Navarro Buendía, which includes a poem about Finisterre and a return to Galicia;  London Circus by Julián Luna Cifuentes, a novel written in Spanish, which compares life in London to life in a circus: “El circo de Londres empezó una mañana del mes de marzo. Una mañana  horrorosa.”  Another idea is that “Picadilly Circus” could be renamed “London Circus”. I have not read these books yet, but I do remember speaking to all the authors at the fair. That is the joy of the London Spanish Book and Zine Fair.  

Amongst the organizations supporting the LSBZF, is the CLACS (The Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies), King’s College London, the Mexican Cultural Centre, ACE Acción Cultural Española, the Embassy of Spain in London, the Feminist Library and the Instituto Cervantes London. This was an excellent community event, connecting people with a shared interest in Spanish-language literature, that promises much for the future. 

Cynthia Lucy Stephens is the author of The Borges Enigma and Circles around Borges.

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