Total Word Count 42,476 Today's Word Count 1,786
The Ties That Bind
We are fighting for the essential unity of Spain. We are fighting for the integrity of Spanish soil. We are fighting for the independence of our country and for the right of the Spanish people to determine their own destiny. When the Northern Spanish town of Guernica was bombed in April 1937 by German and Italian planes supporting Franco's rebellion, Picasso made his famous painting in response to the outrage. When the painting toured the world in 1937-9, it raised awareness of the plight of innocent civilians in Spain and the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War.
The huge canvas was exhibited in 1937 in the Whitechapel Gallery, East London, and the entrance fee was
a pair of workman's boots. The painting became a rallying point for the International Brigades, many of them artists and writers who went to Spain to fight Fascism. They lost that battle and the Spanish Civil War became known as the armed rehearsal for WW2.
I have taken this as the inspiration for my new novel, The Ties That Bind and this is a poem my main character, Kit Brown, writes from the front line of the International Brigade towards the end of 1938.
| The ties that bind - A pair of workman’s boots as blood money take you to a place beyond innocence and into war. War is never be just, despite what we tell ourselves later, from a place of safety after the ties that bind are shredded and the boots worn out. |  Detail from Picasso's Guernica 1937 |
