Cape,384pp,£22
While the involvement in the Spanish Civil War of such male writers as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway is widely known, Sarah Watling has chosen to write about the women, ‘was that they chose not to be dispassionate but to take sides.’ Although ‘group biographies are notoriously hard to write’, Watling ‘knits together with considerable skill the details of her characters’ lives and adventures in Spain…. She also intersperses her narrative with perceptive commentary. Each of these women, as she shows, battled with her own demons.’
