Chuchill & Spain: Jimmy’s father Tom Burns with other UK embassy staff in Madrid, 1945
known as ‘Kidge’, he has two daughters Julia and Miriam. His sister Maria Belen is married to Sir Jonathan Parker a judge in the Gibraltar Court of Appeal; brother Tom Burns was an FT correspondent in Madrid during the 1980s and ’90s, and David is a banker. Jimmy was educated at a British school in Madrid, followed by a preparatory school in London, then the Jesuits at Stonyhurst. He read Latin and American and Iberian studies at University College, London which resulted in a BA Hons degree. He went on to read politics and the government of Latin America at the Institute of Latin American Studies in London and the London School of Economics and Political Science which resulted in his MA degree. Needing a well earned break after so many years of study he spent two years teaching English to foreign students combined with extensive travel in Spain and Latin America. At this point he decided on a career in journalism and paid for his travel costs by selling articles about his experiences. Some of these articles were published in the Catholic Herald and The Tablet; he still contributes to these Catholic publications. By the 1970s he was a full-time journalist. The BBC commissioned him to write the script for an Everyman programme on the Brazilian Archbishop, Helder Camara. After Franco’s death in 1975 he worked as a researcher for Yorkshire TV, contributing to Robert Kee’s critically acclaimed programme on the death of the Caudillo and Spain’s transition to democracy. In 1977 Jimmy joined the Financial Times and was posted to Portugal, also reporting on Spain and Gibraltar thus beginning his political knowledge of Gibraltar. He returned to London in 1980 and spent two years working on the international desk until he was sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina, as the southern cone correspondent. Fortuitously he arrived in Buenos Aires in the middle of a military palace coup and three months before the invasion of the Falkland Islands. As luck would have it he was the
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only British foreign correspondent to remain in Argentina prior to, during and well beyond the war. Thus he was able to report on the war and then Argentina’s transition to democracy. He also provided a regular stream of articles on Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay. His contract with the Financial Times enabled him to contribute articles to non competing publication such as the Observer, the Economist, the Christian Science Monitor as well as international TV and radio stations. In 1986 he returned to London to work at the Financial Times and began writing books. Nigel Newton invited him to join the new independent publishing house, Bloomsbury. Jimmy appreciated that his knowledge of the Falklands War was second to none and so he wrote The Land that lost its Heroes; How Argentina Lost the Falklands War. This drew on Jimmy’s access to military, diplomatic and intelligences sources in Argentina, the United States and the UK. In 1988 this book won the Somerset Maughan prize for non fiction. The book received outstanding reviews by Max Hastings, Robert Harris (Observer), Maxi Gainza (Sunday Telegraph), Tam Dalyell (Sunday Times), Robert Fox (Southside), Paul Pickering (Punch) and not surprisingly the Stonyhurst Magazine. Graham Greene described it as a book ‘for everyone who wishes to understand the Argentine
Fortuitously he arrived in Buenos Aires in the middle of a military palace coup and three months before the invasion of the Falkland Islands
situation before and after the Falklands war’. On 2nd April 2012 an updated edition was published to mark the 30th anniversary of the invasion of the Falkland Islands. It analyses why in 2012 the government of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner launched a new diplomatic and trade offensive over the Falkland Islands as the 13th anniversary of the war approached. His second book, Beyond the Silver River: South American encounters, was based on his personal diaries written while living and traveling in South America. Jimmy said: “When these diaries were kept during the 1980s — a period when South America remained a victim of the Cold War and remained ruled mainly by military dictatorships — their thoughts and observations produced, I hope, a timeless narrative, made up of memorable characters and enduring landscapes and cultures. I believe that South America remains one of the world’s least discovered continents”. He co-authored Dossier Diana a book on the death of Princess Diana published by El Pais/ Aguilar. In the mid-1990s he was encouraged by editors at Bloomsbury to write a biography of Diego Maradona and such was the success of The Hand of God: The Life of Diego Maradona that he went on to write four more books about football When Beckham went to Spain centres on David Beckham joining Real Madrid in 2003 — a move which captured the imagination of the world’s media and resulted in British sports pages carrying extensive copy on Spanish football. This book is not just about David but about a revolution in the world of football and how Spain became Europe’s most exciting country plus the broader importance of the arrival of such a sports icon on Spanish Society. Many critics consider this to be the most authorative book on Beckham and there have been many. It has been translated into Spanish, German and Dutch. La Barca; A People’s Passion is the history of Barcelona Football Club, founded in 1898, tells the story of Barca and its evolution as a social and political phenomenon, how it dared to confront General Franco during the Civil War and how the bitter rivalry started with Real Madrid. It is also tells the story of Catalunia. La Roja; How Soccer Conquered Spain and How Spanish Soccer Conquered the World is the definitive book in English on Spanish Football documenting the origins of soccer in Spain leading to La Roja becoming world champions. In Madrid and Seville, any Spanish player speaking to his coach calls him ‘Mister’ — a relic of the Anglo-Saxon origins of the game of football in Spain. The Real Deal; a History of Real Madrid is available on Kindle. During his time on the Rock Jimmy hopes to talk football with local fans and hopefully someone will be able to arrange a meeting in the margins of the festival. Jimmy is a lover of Spanish culture and heritage and so was moved to compile Spain — a Literary Companion which is part personal travelogue and part anthology. It draws on the observations of travelers to Spain over the centuries, on a range of subjects from food and wine to bullfighting and religion. His text is enriched by the comments and
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2014
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