Margaret’s tales of Galicia

Margaret Gimson from Lymington has recently self-published Eugenio’s New Neighbours in Spanish Galicia, a book about the years she and her husband spent in Galicia. ‘We went to live there in 1970, having bought a neglected farm with 18th century buildings and a chapel, where my husband planned to make a garden,’ Margaret says.

‘The life of the people in rural Galicia in those days was almost as life must have been in all rural Europe countries in past centuries, though moving, since the civil war, into the modern world. We were welcomed and gradually became surprisingly integrated. My husband’s garden became of considerable horticultural interest, and for years I taught English freelance, to adults in the town and children in the village.

‘I wrote the original version of Eugenio’s New Neighbours in Spanish Galicia in the 1980s. But when my husband died in 1987 I put it on one side because I had to take charge of the garden and property, which I eventually managed to sell in 1989. Then, settled back in England, I sorted out my mountain of notes, and decided that the version of the book I had written was too long-winded. So I took it apart and put it together differently. Then I wasted several years (too innocently) trying to interest agents and publishers. But I was lucky in finding the self-publishing consultancy Amolibros, who I went to for help’.

Margaret is currently working on publicity for Eugenio’s New Neighbours in Spanish Galicia and is planning to write a number of articles about Galicia for magazines. Her experience of writing about her life in Spain has led her to encouage other older writers to do the same: ‘Go ahead and write what you want to, especially about your family and past. Your grandchildren will probably thank you, even if what you write is never published or even finished. Writing is stimulating, and also a certain defence against loneliness.’

Details: Eugenio’s New Neighbours in Spanish Galicia is available at £12.99 from www.amolibros.com/gimson