AUTHOR JIMMY BURNS Straddling the Divide
interview | Mike Brufal
Jimmy Burns, 61, an experienced journalist and author who knows virtually all senior UK, Spanish and Gibraltarian diplomats and politicians as well as all the movers and shakers who have been involved in the Gibraltar/Spain issue during the last few decades, has been invited to the Gibraltar International Literary Festival to speak on The Secret War — Gibraltar and Spain 1939-’45 along with Peter Martland and David Liebler. Jimmy’s father Tom Burns had a distinguished career as a publisher, journalist, author and editor of The Tablet magazine, was sent to the Embassy in Madrid during the Second World War as a master spy under the cover of being a press attaché. His mother, Mabel, was the youngest daughter of Spain’s most eminent surgeon Dr Gregorio Maranon. After the war Mabel moved to London and was one of the founders of the Spanish Welfare Fund which provided assistance to Spanish immigrants. During the 1950s, together with former UK ambassador to Madrid Jock Balfour, she helped revive the Anglo Spanish Society, now renamed the British Spanish Society. This UK registered charity was founded in 1916 by British and Spanish academics who feared Spain might favour Germany, despite its official neutrality, in World War One. The Society is dedicated to building cultural and educational links between the peoples of Spain and the UK. Jimmy was born in Madrid in 1953 and throughout his life has straddled British and Spanish cultures. Burns wrote his father’s biography Papa Spy (a true story of love, wartime espionage in Madrid and the treachery of the Cambridge spies headed by Kim Philby) and within its pages are many anecdotes about and references to Gibraltar. During his session at the Gibraltar International Literary Festival he will talk about this book which centres on the incredible web of intrigue that his father wove during his time in Madrid — the most important part of his brief was to ensure General Franco maintained Spain’s neutrality during the war to prevent Hitler’s army from marching through Spain to capture Gibraltar. Jimmy is a journalist who, because of his parentage and upbringing, is able to look at the Gibraltar issue with a totally detached frame of mind. He has been to the Rock countless times and as a boy at Stonyhurst College his peers included many Gibraltarians such as Isolas, Haynes, Stagnettos and Russos — his best man at his wedding was Andrew Haynes. During his time in Madrid he got to know many Gibraltarians including Frank Porral and Charlie Langdon. Married to the Hon Mary Addington, a speech and language therapist, universally
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