Sunday, June 15, 2014

Guest Blogger––Thomas Mogford, "Gibraltar––An Introduction"


Every other Sunday is our day for Guest Author Postings by mystery writers who base their stories in non-US settings.  We think it a great way of introducing our readership to new experiences and places.  We’re honored to have with us today Thomas Mogford, a fellow reformed lawyer (but he’s a nice guy) I had the great pleasure of sharing a panel with a few weeks back at CrimeFest in Bristol.

Thomas studied Modern Languages at Oxford University and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Law from City University, London.  His first novel in the lawyer Spike Sanguinetti series set on Gibraltar, Shadow of the Rock, was shortlisted for a Dagger award in the UK for best new crime writer of 2013. The sequel, Sign of the Cross, was shortlisted for the eDunnit award in 2014. The third, Hollow Mountainwas published in the UK in April, and has already been called 'a classic detective story' by The Sunday Times. Thomas lives with his family in London. www.thomasmogford.com, #ThomasMogford

Welcome, Thomas.  And thank you.
Jeff

‘As safe as the Rock of Gibraltar’ – or so the saying goes. For centuries Gibraltar has been a symbol of impregnable strength, its silhouette still used today as the logo for one of the largest American insurance companies.

But the strange truth is that the Rock of Gibraltar is not solid at all. Its Latin name is ‘Mons Calpe’, ‘Hollow Mountain’, as its interior is honeycombed by hundreds of natural passageways and caves. One of these, Lower St Michael’s, is so large it contains an underground lake, which the Romans associated with Charon the ferryman, believing that Gibraltar marked the entrance to Hell. Interlinking these caves are thirty-three miles of hand-bored tunnels, built to provide defence against the besieging Spanish. There are more miles of road inside the Rock of Gibraltar than out. In World War II, further caves were constructed inside the Rock to house the entire civilian population should Hitler decide to invade (he didn’t – his greatest tactical mistake, according to Goering). Hospitals, bakeries and warehouses lie eerily rotting inside. The mighty 1400-foot high limestone mountain has a hollow belly.


This sort of paradox is a regular occurrence in Gibraltar. The first time I visited, fifteen years ago, I did so with certain preconceptions. I knew it was part of the Iberian peninsular, and had belonged to Spain until the British captured it in the early eighteenth century. I knew there were Barbary apes living wild, and that the British military still used it as a stronghold, hence the alleged plot by the IRA to detonate a bomb, which resulted in the killings of three of its members in 1988. Union Jack flags were waved, warm English beer was drunk, the sun shone. I thought I would be in for an odd, if not particularly edifying, visit. I was wrong.


The first surprise was the locals. I’d assumed they’d be Spanish or British. Maybe half and half. But a simple glance at the shop names on Main Street revealed something different. Caruana, Isola, Sanguinetti… the most common surnames were Italian. What was a bunch of Italians doing in a disputed British territory at the southern tip of Spain? It turns out that, after the British captured the Rock in 1704, the Spanish population literally fled for the hills. The garrison needed people to service its needs, so immigration was encouraged from elsewhere in Europe. The Genoese were the Mediterranean’s most accomplished sailors – Christopher Columbus the most famous –  so in they flowed, and their descendents form the largest ethnic group among the 30,000 locals today.

What about the military? The sight of the Rock as you approach could hardly be more pugnacious – rearing like a lion against the Strait of Gibraltar and the flat Spanish plains beyond. Comprising just two and a half-square miles – the same size as Hyde Park in London – but as tight and compact as a prize-fighter. The flanks of its bone-coloured limestone are pockmarked with cannon embrasures; the street names of the city which clings to its side bristle with military history – Horse Barrack Lane, Devil’s Tower Road, Casemates Square. On closer inspection, though, the barracks and depots have been converted into offices and luxury apartments. The King’s Bastion that once protected the seaward approach to the Rock is now a leisure centre, complete with bowling lanes and ice rink. Since the end of the Cold War, the military have scaled down, and Gibraltar has had to find income from other sources. Taxes have been lowered, high finance has arrived, and the city now swarms with lawyers, hedge fund managers and online gaming firms.


The Barbary apes, then – surely they wouldn’t mess with expectations? After all, Winston Churchill promised that as long as the apes remained on the Rock, Gibraltar would stay British. He even had replacements drafted in from North Africa to keep the numbers up. The apes are there all right – you don’t even have to catch the cable car to the reserve on the Upper Rock to find them. So assured are they of their existence that they make regular sorties into town, where they raid bins, steal sandwiches from tourists, and generally swagger about with the insouciance of a bachelor party. And yet… Barbary apes? It emerges they aren’t apes at all, but monkeys – Barbary macaques with tails so stubby they were nicknamed apes. Not only are they misidentified but no one knows for certain how they got to the Rock. Some say in a hidden underground tunnel from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. Others that they’re the descendants of pets kept by the British garrison. Another Gibraltarian enigma.


And the flag-waving? The Union Jacks certainly fly liberally – draped from the windows of cheap government housing flats, from public buildings, from the peak of the Rock itself. Graffiti that wouldn’t be out of place in Unionist bastions of Belfast colours the backstreets.


The assumption is that the Gibraltarians love Britain as it shields them from Spain, and that the British love Gibraltar as an example of the bulldog spirit they hope characterises their nation’s finer qualities. Yet this has not always been the case – on at least four occasions, most recently under Tony Blair in 2002, the British government has considered disposing of Gibraltar.


Her military use has faded, and the souring of relations with Spain has always represented a thorny issue. The problem for the British government is the loyalty of the Gibraltarians. According to the UN Charter for self-determination, if the locals vote to stay British, then British they shall stay. At a time when Scotland is debating whether to become independent, some would say that Whitehall should be pleased by Gibraltar’s steadfastness. Yet the idea of the Rock of Gibraltar being ‘safe’ is misrepresented. The threat to their existence is what makes the residents wave the British flag so fervently.


Intrigued by the Rock’s contradictions, I decided to try and capture them in a book. Lawyers are everywhere in Gibraltar, and as I trained as one, a lawyer seemed the ideal protagonist. Spike Sanguinetti came into being – and his  third adventure, Hollow Mountain, published in April 2014 in the UK, comes out August 5th in the US.



Sunday Guest Blogger—Thomas Mogford

10 comments:

  1. Fascinating! "As solid as the rock . . ." was certainly part of my culture in South Africa when I was young. It is so typical of Churchill to prepare to have 'apes' brought in so his promise could be fulfilled. Thanks for all these delightful insights.

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    1. Thanks, Stan. Yes, one of those strange icons, much heard of but little known!

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  2. Thanks, Thomas! Your blog intrigued me, the Amazon sample of "Shadow of the Rock" hooked me, and you're now the proud owner of one more soon-to-be (as soon as I finish the current book) reader.

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    1. Everett, big thanks. Every reader is a major boost as far as I'm concerned. Hope you enjoy it; a lot of the first one is set in Morocco but it's all shot through from a Gibraltarian perspective (hopefully). Best wishes, Tom

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  3. Amazing how so many of us (using the plural to make me not seem alone in my ignorance) are utterly ignorant of the truth behind (or, in this case "not within") what stand as the very symbols of our lives. I, in the US, as Stan in South Africa, grew up in the shadow of that symbol of the rock, but never bothered to think of Gibraltar much beyond its commercial image. Thanks for the long overdue lesson, Thomas.

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    1. Mykonos was a similarly familiar name, but I now feel I know more about its peccadillos post Siger reading.... Thrilled to appear on the MIE radar. Best wishes! Tom

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  4. Hi Thomas, I've been to Gibraltar many times over the years monitoring the cost of those beautiful ocean view apartments - and dreaming ;). A taxi driver once told us that the health care on the Rock will no longer tolerate ex pat Brits sneaking across the border for a procedure on the extended NHS. And that young Gibraltarians who chose to study on mainland GB sign a document to agree to return and work on the Rock for three years to repay the debt of their education. When I questioned him about that he said, mostly, it worked well as a system.

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    1. I think the UK-Gib axis is a fairly happy one. It's the Spain connection that gets people foaming at the mouth. I was at a wedding last week with an incredibly genial Spanish couple. Once the open bar began, the Spike Sanguinetti link came up, and the wounds were revealed as fresh and raw. All I can say is that for the Spanish residents of the nearest Spanish town, La Linea, Gibraltar is an important economic presence. Most of the sabre rattling seems to come from Madrid, as Gib remains a hot political potato. What if Land's End was Spanish, they ask. That said, I have to admit that I've never been to Land's End. Yet....

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  5. have a look at (murder Cumberland Rd Gibraltar), and tell me murder is not everywhere even now

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