The Alianza publishing house has published a new translation of ‘Goodbye to all that’ the early autobiography of Robert Graves in which author of ‘I, Claudio’ He recalls his time in World War I with an anti-war story that marked a “clean slate” in his life.
This was explained in a meeting with the press by his son, William Graves, who detailed some of his father’s anecdotes during his life in Spain. like the moment when he received “in espadrilles” the then Minister of Information and Tourism with Franco, Manuel Fraga or how he “enjoyed” washing dishes after meals because “it was a time to think.”
After fighting in World War I with the British Army, Graves, seriously affected by what he had seen, decided to move to Deià, a Majorcan town where he stayed until his last days. ““My father lived a time in Mallorca when there was a lot of openness, Franco didn’t mind because it was an isolated place and he was very happy there.”has explained.
In this place he achieved worldwide fame after the publication of ‘I, Claudio’ and the subsequent adaptation into a BBC series format. That is why he interacted with numerous notable artists in Spain, such as Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Cela, and received visits from authorities such as Fraga, with whom he ended up becoming friends.
“Fraga came with about twelve cars to see him and just at that moment my father was working with composting and espadrilles. Then, the sheriff from there came running to warn of the official visit, to which my father responded that he did not know who Fraga was and that he was not going to change: ‘When I go to see a minister, I change, but if he comes to me, then he takes me as I am’“, his son recalled with humor.
William Graves remembers the researcher of ‘The Greek Myths’ as “a very familiar father”, who went down to the cove whenever he could to play with his children, although without leaving aside his work as a writer. “When I was working, I was working and I made it clear,” has remarked.
In fact, William remembers how Graves’ first wife was a “feminist” and that led him to participate more than usual at the time in household chores. “I suppose that nowadays she is no longer as feminist as she should have been, but she did enjoy washing the dishes, because no one else wanted to and it gave her time to think,” has remarked.
HIS LIFE ON HORSE BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND
Robert Graves managed to reach Spain in 1929 in a plane piloted by the aviator who took Franco from Tetouan to the Canary Islands, which facilitated his passage through border controls. Since then, he established his residence in Deià and dedicated himself to writing with the money earned first with ‘Goodbye to all that’ and then, to a greater extent, with ‘Yo, Claudio’.
But the writer never left aside his patriotic past, as he returned “frequently” to the British Isles and became a professor of poetry – “his great passion” – at Oxford from 1961 to 1966. Only a mental illness in the last years of his life led him to stop writing, although as William Graves has commented “there is hardly any unpublished work left”.
THERE WILL BE NO FILM OF ‘I, CLAUDIO’
His own son is now working on editing a compilation of letters – he wrote about 20 a day – out of a total of around 10,000 letters to review. He has also talked about a novel “about sex” that he wrote and is kept at St. John’s College.
Furthermore, he has ruled out reviving ‘Yo, Claudio’ for a film adaptation, after the success of the 1976 series. “People continue talking about this series and every five or six years there is an offer from a production company, which seems to is going to do it, but in the end they back out. A film can never work, because it is the story of five Caesars and that is complicated,” he concluded.