Julián Casanova Franco 528pp. Crítica. €22.90. Giles Tremlett El Generalísimo Franco: Power, violence and the quest for greatness 528pp. Bloomsbury. £30. Juan Carlos I, with Laurence Debray Reconcilia

Is this the age of dictators?” asked veteran journalist Sir Sidney Low. He was writing in September 1923, the month in which a military coup brought Miguel Primo de Rivera to power in Spain. At the sa

CARMEN felt that the time had finally come to find out if her dear brother still lived. It had been a long and terrible second half decade in a 10-year war. Mexico had been traumatised, the factions o

We are in Nicaragua, and here the local news comes in whispers. “You wouldn’t believe the panic that has gone on here. They’re running scared. And I don’t blame them.” Our old friend was being cautiou

The history of Mexico is epic. There are the Maya and the Aztecs; the meeting of two continents, with Moctezuma and Cortés; a cry for independence led by a priest-turned-general; the loss of more than

ENGINEERING THE END OF MEDIEVAL WARFARE