October 24, 1937
Sunday Referee


Author Is King of Isle
His Father Seized
With Own Navy


Sunday Referee Correspondent
Horsham, Saturday


King Philip I of Redonda, seventy-two years of age, runs six miles every day through the Sussex countryside, grows cabbages, roses and Michaelmas daisies in front of his cottage near Horsham. And he hasn't the least idea under what pile of books he has lost his crown.

King Philip under his much better known name of M. P. Shiel published his thirtieth novel, The Young Men Are Coming, last week.

When I stopped him as he trotted, iron-grey-thatched head well down, he was much more disposed to talk about books than about his far-away kingdom.

But a smile spread across his tanned, high-nosed, handsome face, the face of a gipsy king of romance, when I pressed him to tell me how he became a king.

"Come into my cottage," he said. I live here alone, and just now am preparing my own meals, because the woman who 'does for me' is ill. Have a glass of wine. Have a chocolate. Have a cigarette. Now, let's have some light."

He illuminated the room by lighting ten candles of the score or so which were scattered in candlesticks about the room.

"Now, to understand how I became a king, I must tell you about my father. He was a prominent figure in Montserrat, a mountainous island in the Leeward Islands in the West Indies.

"He claimed to be descended from the ancient kings of Ireland, and he wanted a son to carry out the line. But eight times my Mother presented him with a daughter.

"A pious man, my father, each time a daughter was born, he held a family prayer-meeting to hint to providence that a little variety would be acceptable.


JUST ANNEXED IT


"At length I arrived. My father was so delighted that he cast about for some way of distinguishing his remarkable son from the common run of men.

"There chanced to be near Montserrat a five-miles-square islet called Redonda, which no Government had claimed. So one day around 1880, my father and I annexed the island of Redonda, and I was crowned King Philip I.

"We set out with a great fleet I don't know how many ships my father owned and a good many of the population of Montserrat came in still more ships to see the fun.

"Somehow my father had persuaded a parson to perform the ceremony. Amid the plaudits of the multitude a crown was set upon my fifteen-years-old head by the good parson. I still have the crown, made of wood and gold, somewhere about the house. I believe it cost a lot of money.

"Three years later the British annexed Redonda despite my father's angry protests.
He fumed and wrote indignantly to the British Government, pointing out our prior claim. For fifteen years the correspondence went on, angry on my father's side, cold and official on the Government's.


50 Years Ago


"It's something like half a century since I saw my beautiful little kingdom, a green gem set in a blue sea. But I suppose it's going along all right without me."

The reason King Philip runs his six miles a day is that it keeps him young.

"Man is a running animal, and it's natural, " he says, "Our ancestors used to hunt reindeer afoot, and we left it off too suddenly. Hence many of our ills.

"I sleep fourteen hours at a time, then I get up and do exercises for half an hour. Then I work twenty-four hours, writing and gardening, with intervals for my running, and a meal every seven hours. That's why I still have the body of a young man.

"I'd have a face like a young man too, if I'd known earlier in life that one ought to exercise the face muscles as well as the other muscles."

Just now Mr. Shiel is revising a life of Jesus he has spent years writing.

"I've tried to keep it orthodox, but I just can't," he said.

But, then, King Philip is hardly an orthodox kind of man.

The Star, Tuesday
October 26, 1937


ISLAND KING NOW LIVES
IN A COTTAGE

Writing Books On Science And
Metaphysics And Thrillers

CROWNED 50 YEARS AGO


I have just discovered, writes a roving Star man, a philosopher of Irish antecedents, who more than 50 years ago was crowned King Philip I of Redonda.

Matthew Phipps Shiel is his real name, and he lives all alone in an old-world cottage off the Horsham-Worthing road.

He was asleep in the afternoon when I penetrated the wild shrubbery surrounding the house which he calls L’Abri.


UP TILL DAWN


Hard knocking for five minutes, and then the occupier, in a dressing-gown and without slippers, appeared and invited me indoors.

He apologised. "I had a late night, writing till dawn."

We sat down in a room full of books on science and metaphysics–and his own output of 30 novels.

"I am just finishing an analytical study of St. Luke’s Gospel from the original Greek," he explained.

I asked him how he came to be associated with Redonda, one of the Leeward Islands in the West Indies.


AN ISLAND HOME


"My father," he said, "was an Irishman who liked to believe he was descended from the Irish Kings.

"He owned a fleet of ships which traded with the West Indies. He settled in the island of Montserrat and had nine children, all girls.

"When I, the tenth child arrived, he was so overjoyed that he announced to the family he would have me crowned.

"In due course I was sent to London to be educated, and when, in 1880, I returned, my father had seized Redonda, and he got Dr. Mitchinson, the Bishop of the Antilles, to officiate, and with an elaborate ceremonial, I became its King.

"Redonda, a mile square, belonged to no nation. We found eleven Americans on it collecting guano from the rocks, with clumsy diving boobies looking on.


FLEW UNION JACK


"Three years afterward a British warship arrived, and, much to the fury of my Irish father, planted a huge Union Jack on the island’s highest rock.

"I suppose the Colonial Office thought America might take it, and that would never have done.

"For 15 years we discussed the Claim with Whitehall. The family took the affair with great seriousness.

"I think I saw the humour of it. At the time the inhabitants numbered 25, and they all acknowledged my sovereignty.


NOT WORTH A SQUABBLE


"But all I got out of it was £200 in taxes, and in any case, the kingdom was not big enough to squabble about."

The King of Redonda -all the Leeward and the Windward Isles are now one British Colony under a Governor- came to Europe and Matthew Phipps Shiel, who is now aged 72, has found fame not only as a scholar and philosopher, but also in his leisure hours as a writer of highly imaginative thrillers.

His thrillers include The Black Box, The Rajah’s Sapphire, (with W. T. Stead), Shapes in the Fire, Cold Steel, The Pale Pope [sic], and This Above All.


FOR MORNING LEADER


"I wrote Unto the Third Generation, as a serial for the old Morning Leader, and another serial for the Daily Chronicle, and George Allen and Unwin have just published The Young Men Are Coming."

He says he would rather write than talk, and that he thinks the threats of war are greatly exaggerated.

Even if it came it could not be "the end of civilization," he declared.

A thousand armies and a thousand years would not extinguish the text-books of the world.


"THIS CONTINUAL CRY"


"The internal conditions of a country and the cultivation of scientific intelligence," he added, "ought to be more of public concern than the continual cry that we are on the verge of another war," he maintained.

As I started for town, the former king put on a velvet jacket and set out on his daily six-mile run past Belloc’s home and round the fields where Wilfrid Scawen Blunt used to keep his peacocks and his Arab thoroughbreds.

The Redonda Legend: A Bibliography
By
John D. Squires

[Working draft as of 7/25/00]


A. The Shiel Years (1865-1947)


Shiel, M. P., "About Myself" in The Novels of M. P. Shiel, London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd, [1929], a pamphlet issued to promote reissues of Shiel’s novels. [Reprinted in A. R. Morse, The Works of M. P. Shiel, Volume III, The Shielography Updated, part two, Cleveland: Morse Foundation, 1980, 669-674. A lightly revised and annotated version, first published in the original 1948 edition of Morse’s book, is also reprinted Volume II, The Shielography Updated, part one at 417-422.]


"M. P. Shiel," in The Wilson Library Bulletin, (April, 1929): 612.


"Shiel, Matthew Phipps," in Twentieth Century Authors, W. H. Wilson Co., (1932): 1279-1280. [Reprinted in Works III, 675.]


[Article?], Daily Sketch, (October 20, 1937.)


Jepson, Edgar, Memoirs of an Edwardian and New Georgian, London: Grant Richards, 1937, 242. [The reference was omitted from the "New and Cheaper" edition of this book published in London by Martin Seeker in 1938, though the index still includes a "ghost" reference to Gawsworth at page 242.]


"Author is King of Isle His Father Seized With Own Navy," Sunday Referee, (October 24, 1937) [An interview with Shiel.]


"Island King Now Lives In A Cottage," The Star, (October 26, 1937) [An interview with Shiel.]


[Article?], Star Eagle, Newark, NJ, ( November 20, 1937.)


Grammercy, S. F., [Article or interview?] Everybody’s Weekly, (May 21, 1938.)


[Obituary?], Daily Express, (February 18, 1947.)


Obituary note, Time, (March 3, 1947): 96.


B. The Gawsworth Years (1947-1970)


Connell, John, "A Writer’s Novelist," The Listener, (April 24, 1947):632-633.


Dick, Alan, "Best-seller, a pen pal and a home," Daily Herald, (June 24, 1947.)


"Left Home To Boy He Never Met," West Sussex County Times (Horsham Advertiser and Sussex Standard), (Friday, June 27, 1947.)


Note on inheritance of Shiel’s cottage by Annamarie Miller’s son, Time, (June 30, 1947.)


Blakeston, Oswell, Life and Letters, Vol. 57 (April 1948): 93. [The legend recounted in a brief review of The Best Short Stories of M. P. Shiel, by Sangro, Duke of Redonda.]


"Kingdomless Queen," The American Weekly, (December 12, 1948.)


Derleth, August, "The Realm of Redonda," Arkham Sampler, (Spring, 1949): 70-73 [Reprinted Works III, 682.]


"At the Court of King Juan," News Review, (July 14, 1949): 6.


[Blakeston, Oswell], Life and Letters, Vol 65, (June 1950): 273-274. [The legend mentioned in brief review of Science, Life and Literature by Sangro.]


Smith, Bradley, Escape to the West Indies, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956, 94-95.


Fytton, Francis, "The homing Poet," Cheshire Life, (December, 1956): 57.


"The ‘Kingdom’ of M. P. Shiel", Times, (March 25, 1957.)


Billings, Harold W., "Matthew Phipps Shiel: A Collection and Comments," Library Chronicle of the University of Texas, Vol. VI, no 2 (Spring 1958): 34-43.


"Wanna Be A King?" Reuters article about Gawsworth’s notice of "Caribbean kingship with royal prerogatives" offered for sale for 1,000 guineas in The Times on June 21,1958.


Pearce, Dyke, "His Island ‘Crown’ Is For Sale," Empire News, (June 22, 1958.)


Forbes, Peter, "King of Spoof," The People, Sunday, (June 28, 1958): 6.


"The king without half a crown," Daily Mirror, Saturday, (July 19, 1958): 2.


"Wearing an old black jacket...", Daily Telegraph, (May 22, 1959) [article on appointment of Michael Denison & his wife Dulcie Gray as duke & duchess for their performances in Let Them Eat Cake. See also Michael Denison, Double Act, London: Michael Joseph, 1985, 92-93.]


Moss, Norman, "Juan Prefers London: My Kingdom for a Pub, Says King of Redonda," [copy of clipping in Morse collection, but without publication data. Appears to be from an English newspaper around 1959. "...The Purple Cloud was recently made into the film, Odds Against Tomorrow with Harry Belafonte..." Actually, Odds Against Tomorrow was a different Belafonte movie. The film loosely based on Shiel’s novel was The World the Flesh and the Devil (MGM, 1959.)]


Fawcett, F. Dubrez, "King of All the Seagulls," Men Only, No 75, London, (November, 1960): 58-60 [Reprinted Works III, 683-684.]


Howard, Richard A., "Botanical and Other Observations on Redonda, The West Indies," Journal of the Arnold Arboretum, Vol. XLIII, No. 1, (January 1962): 51-66. [Reprinted in Works III, 703-711.]


Phillips, Eric, interview, "H. M. The King of Redonda," Writer [U. K.] (October 1962): 4.


Maclaren-Ross, J., "The Strange Realm of M. P. Shiel," The London Magazine, (September 1964): 76-84 [Reprinted in Works III, 685-689.]


Angeloglou, Maggie, "The King who washed Edith Sitwell’s Windows and took Dylan Thomas Home to Sleep on the Sofa," London Evening Standard, (Monday, May 3, 1965.)


Gawsworth, John, "M. P. Shiel Centenary: 1865-1965," and Sewell, Brocard, "M. P. Shiel," The Aylesford Review, Vol. VII, no. 3 (Autumn 1965.)


Ross, Charlesworth, "The First West Indian Novelist," Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 4 (December, 1968): 56-60 (Department of Extramural Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica.)


Durrell, Laurence, Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel, ed by Alan G. Thomas, New York: E. P. Dutton,1969 [Includes "Some Notes on My Friend John Gawsworth: 1962", pp 17- 23, discussing the legend at 22. This chapter was reprinted in The Kingdom of Redonda 1865-1990, ed by Paul de Fortis, Aylesford Press, 1990, 53-59.]


"Friends are seriously concerned...," Times, (December 4, 1969) [article on Gawsworth’s decline.]

"Poetic Peerage," Daily Telegraph, (September 26, 1970) [article on Redonda’s peerage and Gawsworth’s death.]


"John Gawsworth will be cremated...," Times, (September 26, 1970.) [A separate death notice appeared in the same issue.]


"John Gawsworth, 58, Itinerant English Poet," Washington Post, (September 26, 1970) [obituary.]


"John Gawsworth, 58, Poet And ‘King’ of Tiny Island," New York Times (September 27, 1970):86, col. 3 [obituary.]


C. The Uncertain Years (1970-?)


Fodor’s Caribbean Guide, Bahamas and Bermudas
, New York: David McKay Company, 1974, 386-387.


Stanford, Derek, Inside The Forties: Literary Memoirs 1937-1957, London: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd, 1977, 214-215.


Eng, Steve, "Two Afterthoughts on M. P. Shiel: Upon Reading Morse’s ‘New Dimensions’," The Romantist, No. 2, Nashville: The F. Marion Crawford Memorial Society (1978): 31.


Morse, A. Reynolds, The Quest for Redonda, Cleveland: The Reynolds Morse Foundation, 1979. [Reprinted as chapter 9 of Works III, 581-742.]


"Is the King of Redonda Redundant?", Daily Mail, (Jan 29, 1979.) [Reprinted in Works III, 714.]


Morse, A. Reynolds, The Works of M. P. Shiel, Vol. III, The Shielography Updated, part two, Cleveland: The Reynolds Morse Foundation, 1980. [A volume of miscellany and biographical data. Besides reprinting The Quest for Redonda, it includes Morse’s account of the Gawsworth years and his analysis of the post Gawsworth succession.]


Wynne-Tyson, Jon, "M. P. Shiel: Right Royal Fantasist", Antiquarian Book Monthly Review, Vol. VIII, #11, issue 91 (Nov 1981): 412-417 [reprinted in M. P. Shiel in Diverse Hands ed. by A. Reynolds Morse, Cleveland: Reynolds Morse Foundation, 1983, 208-211.]


,"Two Kings of Redonda: M. P. Shiel and John Gawsworth", Books at Iowa, no. 36 (April 1982): 15-22.


Klein, T. E. D., "Books," Twilight Zone Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 5 (August 1982): 14-15.


,"In the Twilight Zone: Royalty...," Twilight Zone Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 7 (October 1982): 6. ["Pigs Are Sensitive" by Jon Wynne-Tyson is published at pp 76-80.]


Indick, Ben, "All you ever wanted to know about M. P. Shiel," IBID, No. 40, The Esoteric Order of Dagon, 40th mailing (October 1982): MPS1-MPS6. [Discusses the respective claims of Jon Wynne-Tyson and William Scott Home.]


Fletcher, Ian, "John Gawsworth: The Aesthetics of Failure," The Malahat Review: An International Magazine of Life and Letters, no. 63 (University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), (October 1982): 206-219.


Eng, Steve, "The Lyric Struggles of John Gawsworth," Books at Iowa, no. 38, (April 1983): 29-45.


Morse, A. Reynolds, ed., M. P. Shiel in Diverse Hands: A Collection of Essays on M. P. Shiel, Cleveland: Reynolds Morse Foundation, 1983.


Pitts, Denis, "The Dotty Dynasty of Redonda," The Sunday Express Magazine, (Sept 23, 1984.)


Lehmann, F. W., IV in International Micropatrological Society Update, (February 20, 1985.)


Denison, Michael, Double Act, London: Michael Joseph, 1985, 92-93.


Eng, Steve, "Profile: John Gawsworth," Night Cry, Vol. 2, no. 3, (Spring, 1987): 73-92; reprinted in Aklo (Spring, 1988): 38-46.


O’Coineen, Enda, The Unsinkable Kilcullen, London: The Bodley Head, 1987. [Chapter 16, "Becoming a Lord" includes an account of the legend and the author’s journey to Redonda.]


Dobson, Roger, "M. P. Shiel and Arthur Ransome," Antiquarian Book Monthly Review, Vol. XV, #6, issue 170 (June 1988): 218-224.


Dyde, Brian, "Half Our Sorrows," London Magazine, (Aug-Sept 1988): 79-86.


de Fortis, Paul, "The Kingdom of Redonda–A Brief History," Aklo ( Summer 1989): 14-15.


, "A History of Redonda," in The Kingdom of Redonda, 1865-1990 ed. by Rev. Paul de Fortis, Cheshire: The Alysford Press, 1991, 19-41.


O’Shaughnessy, Hugh, Around the Spanish Main: Travels in the Caribbean and the Guianas, London: Century, 1991, 61; 94-95.


"Kingmaker of the Island that Columbus ignored," The Hampstead and Highgate Express, (March 13, 1992): 2. [Paul de Fortis’ role in promoting "King" Cedric recounted on the occasion of de Fortis’ bizarre accidental death.]


Kohn, Marek, "Letter from Bohemia: From Guano to Soho: go for it," The Independent, (Saturday May 16, 1992.)


Finnegan, Matt, "Hunt for Queen of Caribbean," Manchester Evening News, (May 15, 1993.)


"Bolton housewife to become Queen," Bolton Evening News, (Saturday 15 May 1993.)


Russell, Andrew, "Caribbean Queen," Today, (Tuesday, May 18, 1993): 12.


"Hail Queen Maggie, monarch of Redonda," Daily Mail, (Tuesday, May 18, 1993.)


Brooks, Tony, "Isle Be Blowed: Maggie says no to chance of royal title," Daily Star, (May 18, 1993): 3.


"Isle NOT be Queen," Daily Mirror, (May 18, 1993): 12.


Troup, John, "Maggie’s own isle," The Sun (Tuesday, May 18, 1993): 11.


Finnegan, Matt, "New queen snubs isle paradise," Manchester Evening News, (May 18, 1993): 2.


"‘Queen’ rejects her Caribbean kingdom," Daily Telegraph (May 18, 1993): 2.


Bowman, Carlin, "Maggie’s world a woman’s realm...," Rossendale Free Press (Thursday, May 20, 1993.)


"She’s the queen of Caribbean island," Bury Times, (Friday 21 May 1993): 21.


Johnson [?],Carl, "Queen Maggie falls in love with paradise," (Saturday May 29, 1993.)


Oldfield, Stephen, "Crowning a Caribbean queen," Daily Mail, (Tuesday, June 1, 1993): 25.


Bowman, Carin, "Queen Maggie’s island joy turns sour as firm loses out...," Rossendale Free Press, (Friday 11 June 1993): 9.


"Queen scorns royal pretenders", Evening News, (June 22, 1993.)


Coram, Robert, Caribbean Time Bomb: The United States Complicity in the Corruption of Antigua, New York: William Morrow and Company, 1993. [Redonda and the legend is discussed in chapter 9, "Guano and Literature", 84-95.]


Redondan Cultural Foundation Newsletter 1, ed by Roger Dobson & Mark Valentine, (Feb 1994.)


Henderson, James, "Redonda" in The Caribbean & the Bahamas, (Cadogan Guides) Cadogan Books, plc, 1994, 310-311.


McLaughlin, Brighid, "Redonda reclaimed," Sunday Independent (June 25, 1995): 7L.


"Sales of books and manuscripts," Times Literary Supplement, (July 21, 1995): 32.


Jarvis, Stephen, "Bird droppings and name dropping with the king of Redonda," The Daily Telegraph, (Oct 28, 1995.)


Redondan Cultural Foundation Newsletter 2, ed. by Roger Dobson & Mark Valentine, (Feb 1996.)


Cameron, Sarah, "Redonda" in Caribbean Islands Handbook (with the Bahamas), Footprint Handbooks [in USA Passport Books] (September 1996): 485-486.


Redondan Cultural Foundation Newsletter 3, ed. by Roger Dobson & Mark Valentine, (Nov 1996.)


Stableford, Brian, "M. P. Shiel," Book and Magazine Collector, No. 155 (Feb 1997): 62-71.


Gates, William L., "M. P. Shiel" [letter to editor], Book and Magazine Collector, No. 156, (March 1997): 84.


"The Kings of Redonda", Irish Roots Magazine, #21 (1997 First Quarter.)
Redondan Cultural Foundation Newsletter 4, ed. by Roger Dobson & Mark Valentine, (Jan 1998.)


"Kings Across the Water", The Sunday Review (The Independent on Sunday), (Feb 15, 1998): 42.


Dobson, Roger, "El Rey de Redonda," Machenalia, (Autumn 1998): 3-4 [also includes Antonio J. Iriarte’s review of Negra espalda del tiempo by Javier Marías at 9-10.]


A note on the resignation of Jon Wynne-Tyson and transfer to Javier Marías, All Hallows: the Journal of the Ghost Story Society, no. 19, (October 1998): 7-8.


Redondan Cultural Foundation Newsletter, Issue 5, (November 1998) ed. by Roger Dobson and Mark Valentine, "The Reign in Spain" announces resignation of Jon Wynne-Tyson & assignment to Javier Marías.


Hughes, Rhys H., Rawhead and Bloody Bones & Elusive Plato, Tanjen, Ltd, Leicester: 1998.


Dobson, Roger, letter to the editor, Book Source Monthly, Vol. 18, no. 7 (Oct 1999.)


Showker, Kay, "Caribbean Curiosities," AAA Miami Valley Home & Away(November/December 1999): 22.


Dobson, Roger, "A King in Hornsey," Hornsey Historical Society Bulletin, no. 41 (London, 2000): 33-34.


Marías, Javier, "Reino De Redonda" is a column by published weekly in El Semanal. The issue published April 16, 2000 included at page 10 part one of "Este reino junto al mar." Completed at page 10 of the April 23, 2000 issue as "This kingdom by the sea," this is Mr. Marías’ summary of the Redonda legend and his succession to Jon Wynne-Tyson’s interests as executor and "king."


, "Only Air and Smoke and Dust," a Prefatory Note to La Mujer De Huguenin by M. P. Shiel, translated into Spanish by Antonio Iriarte, Barcelona: Reino de Redonda, 2000. The book, a selection of six short stories, also includes as appendices Shiel’s "About Myself" in Spanish and English, a number of illustrations, and lists of Redondan titles and offices created by John Gawsworth, Jon Wynne-Tyson and Javier Marías, respectively.



Redonda Bibliography: Spanish Addenda


NOTE: [This section is based on data supplied by Antonio Iriarte, who also translated the headlines into English.] The following articles are all based on the press conference held by Javier Marías on Friday, July 7, 2000. All of them retell, with more or less detail, the story of Shiel’s kingdom of Redonda and its succession. The first three kings are all duly mentioned, as are the nobility titles bestowed by them, and by JM . Shiel’s importance as a writer is usually left in the background, although the book and the publishing house are, of course, mentioned as well.


de Tuesta, M» José Díaz, "Writer Javier Marías makes his debut as publisher with a fantastic literature series. The author creates ‘Reino de Redonda’, a publishing house which opens with a book by M.P. Shiel", El País, Madrid, (July 8, 2000): 40.


Palacios, Elena F., "Javier Marías inherits a Caribbean island and creates a new publishing house. The writer is the current King of Redonda, a phantasmagoric title, empty of any real contents, which was held by other writers before him," Diario 16, Madrid, (July 8, 2000): 52.


J. C. R., "Javier Marías creates the publishing house of his novelesque Kingdom of Redonda," La Razón, Madrid, (July 8, 2000): 30 [Also, at 12, Photo of JM with caption: "Javier Marías creates the ‘Reino de Redonda’ publishing house."]


Astorga, Antonio, "Javier Marías makes his debut as publisher with Reino de Redonda," ABC, Madrid, (July 8, 2000): 49.


Yebra, Tomás García, "Javier Marías creates a publishing house. He has just "inherited" an island in the Caribbean," El Heraldo de Aragón, Zaragoza, (July 8, 2000.)


Merino, Juan Carlos, "Javier Marías makes his debut as a publisher with an anthology of fantastic tales by Shiel. All Souls author inherits the crown of the Caribbean island of Redonda, establishes a court of writers and movie makers, and plans to publish two books per year, with a Catalan edition by Columna." In a box, on the same page, a potted biography of M. P. Shiel: "Profile: First King of Redonda and Science Fiction forerunner", by M. Bach, La Vanguardia, Barcelona, (July 8, 2000): 47.


"Javier Marías turns publisher and creates the firm ‘Reino de Redonda’". Press agency release. A good summary, with mention of Shiel and of the book. El Día de Valladolid, Valladolid, (July 8, 2000.)


"Javier Marías ‘inherits’ a Caribbean island and creates a new publishing house. The writer narrates this amazing story in his novel Dark Back of Time. The island kingdom has several high officials appointed by the author". COLPISA -a press agency-. Neither Shiel nor the book are mentioned. Canarias 7, Las Palmas, (July 8th, 2000.)


M» A. S.-V, "Books: An ex libris in the shape of an island. Javier Marías launches a new publishing house named after ‘his’ island, Redonda." Mentions both Shiel and the book, but deals mainly on JM’s nobility list and official appointments. El Semanal, no. 665, (July 23, 2000): 16.


Bonilla, Juan, "M. P. Shiel, King of Redonda," El Mundo, Madrid, (July 11, 2000.) [A positive review of La mujer de Huguenin.]

Enviado por Antonio Iriarte

Ambassador at 221b Baker Street, or 'Ashdown'
Embajador en el 221b de Baker Street, o 'Ashdown'